Sunday Open Thread 03-08-15
Submitted by Cordelia Lear on Sun, 03/08/2015 - 7:45am
Good morning 99percenters!
I generally don’t buy hardcover books anymore unless I know the author but I’m going to make an exception for former President Jimmy Carter’s newest book.
Simon & Schuster announced Friday that Carter's "A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety" will be published July 7.
The book will include his thoughts on his domestic and international travels over the past three decades, on the presidents who succeeded him and on world leaders he has known.
I’m even going to see if I can get an autographed copy.
This is an open thread so tell us what’s on your mind today. And, thank you for stopping by and expressing your thoughts.
Comments
"Play Angry".
Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team plays "angry".
I like that.
I like to play angry. Keeps people on their heels.
For example. I saw people praising Obama for his
speech at Selma. This is a person who orders the murder of women and children. This is a person who ordered DHS to
come down on the non-violent protesters during Occupy. I don't know how anyone can praise this creep any longer, particularly
when talking about civil and human rights. I'm just not going to do it, in fact, as you can see, I'm going to go all the way to the other
side and call him a killer.
I don't know why more people aren't doing that. Is there a different standard for our government than for us?
That's playing angry. But hey, at least I didn't write a diary about it. This is just a comment on a Sunday morning.
I read that diary.
And many people were asking where all the Obama haters were after hearing his speech.
I read his each and it hit me the same way as his Nobel prize speech did. But many said that his speech was one of his best. Right up there with MLK. Vomit.
It amazes me that people can be so blind to who he represents and what he does.
It's amazing that what they hated when Bush was doing they find it acceptable now that Obama is doing the same things, or even worse.
I've seen people stating that they support the TPP. And agree with the DOJ's report on ferguson and Wilson.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
But don't play too angry
If you're too angry, you'll wind up like Ndamukong Suh. As of the end of last season, Suh had been fined ten times by the NFL for various acts of unsportsmanlike conduct. He's not only paid $216,875 in fines, but has also lost $187,294 on account of suspensions without pay.
Suh has reportedly signed a $100 million-plus deal with the Miami Dolphins. The new contract ups the ante on Suh's future on-field outbursts. I think Miami is taking a big gamble by signing him. Leopards don't change their spots.
True, but if I end up like Suh
and get a 100 million, then I can finance the revolution.
Somebody needs to finance the revolution dammit!
Ya, they're all nuts now. 100 million, 300 million, Jordan a billionaire.
I remember when Willie Mays made 100K.
It goes hand in hand with the unjust system we have.
I buy hardcover used from Amazon - and hate that
I can't afford to buy new books. That's why I buy everything used. I am a compulsive book buyer. Mention a title in a diary or comment and chances are I am going to buy it for something around 5 to 7 dollars or less from Amazon. So many now, now that I have to pay attention to buy no hardcover books anymore.
I would like to stop this. Doing my little bit to boycott Amazon. I have seen and met Bezos personally in 1994 a couple of weeks before he launched his "biggest bookstore in the world" and look what he has created.
I know it is ridiculous to try to boycott his company, but I could try to be stubborn and do it nevertheless. But I don't know how. People offer all their used books for sale through Amazon. So, the circle books make from new book sales to resale as used book to Amazon and resale as used book from Amazon, may be even several time, is closed and remains inside Amazon.
How do you buy books? Used, new, Amazon, independent bookseller ?
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How do I buy books? Mainly, I don't.
I've had an iPad for almost a year, and our public library has thousands of titles that one can borrow. I've read about three dozen books, including the entire Harry Potter series, a couple of Jeff Shaara Civil War novels, and Paul Theroux's latest travel narrative. The Apple Store has a large selection of works that are in the public domain, such as "The Jungle Book" and "Moby-Dick". I downloaded the King James Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare to my Apples.
Our library also belongs to a statewide network through which I can borrow books in other libraries' collections. When I was writing a Point/Counterpoint book about the military draft, I found a number of older, hard-to-find books that were helpful. (I'm one of the few people who has read a biography of Louis B. Hershey cover to cover.)
The local AAUW chapter has a book sale every September, and I show up on "$5 Bag Day" and fill a shopping bag with hardcover books. A couple of David McCullough biographies and Ron Chernow's bio of George Washington waiting for me upstairs. Our local Friends of the Library has a store, and I've gotten some paperback classics and the invaluable trivia book, "An Incomplete Education."
Nowadays, about the only time I buy new books is to give them to others or if the author is someone I'm familiar with and is selling directly. I recently bought Jon Walker's "After Legalization" (marijuana legalization, that is) through his Kickstarter campaign because I'd seen his work on Firedoglake.com.
That's what I do too
That was a great idea they had. But I hope they start firing employees or shut down libraries.
I listen to books on my walks and at night. They're my white noise since I have problem sleeping.
I just gave away over 200 books to the ms society along with 12 or more coats.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
I have given books to my local library and to the
Book Place in Baltimore. Joe Shikspack pointed me to them. They even took some of my German and French books.
May be I will write some diaries for here about the books I will read and talk about subjects I don't have the nerves to post on DK.
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I no longer buy books by political figures
now that I don't believe they're sincere, now that I do believe they're all hucksters looking for a buck, con men and women, amoral bloodsuckers, I just don't want them in the house.
"How can I con the suckers out of money?" they all wonder. Some of them aren't necessarily office holders. Some are crooks like Carville. Some are pundits.
Which reminds me, Wonkette has declared that she's a Christian and is worried, not that people will mock her, but that some Christians will think she's not Christian enough....and my first thought (probably correct) is that she sat down, calculated how much money "Christian" suckers spend and decided to fleece them.
Most such books are very crappy, too
The worst of the worst are biographies/autobiographies written by would-be presidential candidates. Based on what I've read about it, the Huckster's bio (I'm referring to Mike Huckabee) is a stinkeroo of epic proportions.
That said, there are political biographies that are both informative and funny. One of the best I ever read was Fishbait, by the former House doorkeeper. Congress, as he described it, was more like Animal House than House of Cards.
I buy books that cover times in US and European history,
current and from the past, because I haven't read them before in my life.
I bought a couple that were not worth it. But helas, I learn slowly. I don't read Wonkette. I used for a short time in the beginning, when I realized who she was and were she came from before she became Wonkette. Can't remember when that was, I think around 2003. Someone (who rented in my then employer's office building's basement) wrote an article about her, then known as Ana Marie Cox. I remembered that article (have forgotten the name of the guy who wrote that portrait of her) when she launched Wonkette. I kind of ran out of steam to enjoy good sarcastic writing from the left. It just goes so far and I feel I am at the end of that road. So, I run away from those things.
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Cox had a big TV run on MSNBC
in the early and mid 2000's. She was a frequent on Olbermann and Maddow.
"Never separate the life you live from the words you speak." --Paul Wellstone
yeah, I remember that, but listened only to Olbermann
regularly. Maddow I became aware of a little bit later. I liked her a lot, she is so talented, but I got tired of her too. I don't listen anymore to MSNBC. Basically I just watch France 24, ARD German TV, Public TV of MD, WETA and WHUT (Howard University in DC) and the rest is online. The shorter and the less compassionate the better for me.
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Maddow came along later
during the run up to the 2008 election.
We hardly watch TV anymore. It gets most of it's use watching baseball as we have an MLB.com subscription and some for movies we borrow from the library, or stream from TCM or Hoopla.
Living near the Canadian border we watched CBC for many years, but since Harper was elected I can't. I got sick watching Canadian politics fall down the same rat hole as the US.
"Never separate the life you live from the words you speak." --Paul Wellstone
yeah, isn't it sad what became out of Canada under Harper
nowhere to go and forget about all that shit these days.
hmm, have to inquire about Hoopla service.
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Canada
all was lost when Jack Layton passed away.
"Never separate the life you live from the words you speak." --Paul Wellstone
I wouldn't even
borrow one of Carville's books from the library. I was able to hold my nose and just consider him an obnoxious fool but once he married BushCo operative and Cheney COS Mary Matalin he proved he believes in nothing.
"Never separate the life you live from the words you speak." --Paul Wellstone
you bring back memories - nah, why would I buy
a book from Carville. OMG I am so dead tired of political news. I wonder how I get out of this deep hole I am in. I wonder since when I am so done with all of it.
Well, will be back when I feel better.
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