24. America, Russia and the Cold War by Walter Lafeber

Just nosed this one in. This book is a great survey of the cold war and highly recommended for those of us not too familiar with the period.

The similarity between the tactics used by Truman (democrat) and Bush (republican) to get what they wanted is quite stunning.

I highly recommend that you read this. Not only is it an excellent history but it provides an excellent context for today's mess.

23. Hardball by George Stalk et al.

This book was recommended to me by a consultant friend of mine. It is a reasonable business book that focuses on how one can build a company that is aggressively competitive.

It is short and sweet and I would recommend it.

22. The Lights that Failed by Zara Steiner

I read this 800 page beast in one week - I love holidays! Zara Steiner does an admirable job at describing European international history between 1919 and 1933.

Ideologically she is neither in AJP Taylor's camp (who believe that the the Treaty of Versailles caused the rise of Hitler and WWII) or Hugh Trevor-Roper's camp (who believe that the two events cannot be related). Instead she falls squarely in between them. She acknowledges that Versailles did have some impact on the rise of Hitler then she cautions that the period is far too complicated to tie the two together as simply as the Taylorites do.

If you have the time, this is a very good history of the period and I would recommend it.

Honestly, we don't all listen to this stuff!

Western Music Is Banned

TEHRAN, Dec. 19 (AP) - President Ahmadinejad has banned Western music from Iran's radio and television stations, reviving a cultural decree from the early days of the 1979 revolution.

Songs like George Michael's "Careless Whisper," Eric Clapton's "Rush" and the Eagles' "Hotel California" have regularly accompanied Iranian broadcasts, as do tunes by the saxophonist Kenny G.

But the official daily Iran reported Monday that Mr. Ahmadinejad, as the leader of the Supreme Cultural Revolutionary Council, ordered the enforcement of a ruling by the council in October to ban Western music.

Music was outlawed as un-Islamic by Ayatollah Khomeini soon after the revolution. But as the fervor of the revolution started to fade, light classical music was allowed on radio and television. Some public concerts reappeared in the late 1980's.

21. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

This is a sequel to Me Talk Pretty One Day and it is a poor one. The stories are, for the most part, not funny and are rather average.

Not recomended.

The Reprehensibles Part VII

You might have read that on Monday the Supreme Court agreed to hear four law suits brought by various organizations regarding the mid-census redistricting that went on in Texas.

The story is that Tom Delay and his cronies engineered a redistricting of the Texas congressional districts in 2003. They relied on 2000 census data even though Texas' population had been increasing by about 1.5M people per year. They gerrymandered the districts in such a way that the Democrats ended up losing 5 congressional seats.

The controversy was fueled last week when the DOJ leaked a memo written by its bureaucrats unanimously condemning the attempted redistricting. Any time there is an attempted redistricting a team 4 lawyers and 2 statisticians - all DOJ bureaucrats - review the submission. In this case they all said that this was unconstitutional. This is the memo that has been leaked.

What the Republicans are doing is simply bad for democracy in addition to being dishonest.

The Reprehensibles Part VI

Just look at her. You know that she has been torturing people. I would like to go on record to say that I believe that the US is running secret torture camps, they are breaking at least the spirit of international law with their rendition programs and they have killed numerous prisoners by torturing them to death.

This practice and by association this government goes against everything that was good about America and everything that America was founded upon.

All Americans should hang their heads in shame and in sorrow for this is the darkest day of US government in living memory.