Enough readers have asked me to put together a list of books I've read or have been in the process of reading this year, so it doesn't feel like a completely delusional exercise on my part. Lately, I've developed a taste for classic science fiction, Jason Bourne thrillers and Stephen King novels that aren't reflected on this list. Like many readers, I'm usually reading several books at a time. What follows is merely the stuff that is allegedly good for you:The first on his list?
"The Assault on Reason" by Al Gore. Even some of my liberal buddies think this book is dull. I couldn't disagree more. Mr. Gore's analytical critique of the Bush administration's fear-based politics and its notorious indifference to fact-based reasoning only feels obvious after he's explained it. If only the leading Democratic presidential candidates were this "dull."That would be me. Here's what I wrote on August 9:
So Tony, if it means that much to you, I'll try to plow through it again. I'll have to set aside Warren Weaver's book on probability and of course Marvel Zombies, but I'll try.It's not that I disagreed with anything I read in Gore's book - far from it. It's an important work that everyone should read, no question. But while it may or may not be written by Gore alone, it certainly sounds like it's a work written by a committee all trying to sound like Al Gore.
It's an odd torture, of sorts. You know each page contains important ideas. But sitting through (and sifting through) the text...oh god. Not fun.
If anything, I'll get more sleep.
This blog is hilarious. It may not have been written by Gore but sounds like it could have? It may not be global warming but it feels good to say it? It is an important work that everyone should read even if Gore may or may not have written it and even if the facts are stretched somewhat? After all, it makes the left feel so much better about themselves. This blog is the funniest going.
ReplyDeleteHilarious, but not as funny as the Anonymous Laughing Wingnut making outrageous statements without the ability to back them up. Now that's funny!
ReplyDeleteOnly Tony Norman would post a summer reading list at the end of August.
ReplyDeleteI have been reading, struggling through, "The Political Brain" by Drew Westen. The guy, a psychologist, also seem like a mild paranoid to me, seeming to think the Republicans are a monolithic threat, using our emotions to cloud our judgment. I think he is good on specifics, though, but very repetitive.
Interesting that Tony defends Andrew Keen's "Cult of the Amateur." Keen was so obnoxious on the Colbert Report that I had wondered if he was a plant.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely more interested in next week's list of classic science fiction.
No doubt, Assault on Reason covers dodging debates with people who disagree with you and screaming scientific consensus every time someone questions anything you say.
ReplyDeleteAl Gore Challenged To Debate Global Warming By Best-selling Author
Mr. Avery is co-author of Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1,500 Years. Both Al Gore and Dennis Avery have New York Times best-selling books on global warming, but with opposite conclusions.
[…]
Avery joins Lord Christopher Monckton (former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher advisor), Bjorn Lomborg (Danish economist), author Michael Crichton, Prof. S. Fred Singer (former director of the U.S. National Weather Service), Tim Ball, Ph.D. (historical climatologist), Prof. Ian Clark (University of Ottawa), and Prof. Richard Lindzen (MIT) among others.
Has the goracle even corrected his BS on US cars not sold in China? "We can’t sell our cars in China today because we don’t meet the Chinese emissions standards."
I know Paramount got the video where he says it pulled from youtube for copyright violations.
Right, Mein Heir. Why would we listen to thousands of climate scientists when we could take the word of a Reagan agricultural consultant? Especially when said consultant has written "Why Punish Oil Companies Just When We Need More Energy?" and "Free Range Chickens and Ducks Dangerous to Humanity?"
ReplyDeleteAnd why wouldn't Al Gore debate him? Probably 'cause Gore's afraid of being outclassed, huh?
Coming up next on Fox News: Why is Stephen Hawking afraid to debate Jessica Simpson on the subject of String Theory?
S.S.- Spot on. This is classic kill the messenger, and present even lamer messengers to do it. Look, from a scientific standpoint, we know that we need to do something about global warming. You know what policies have little credible empirical evidence that they actually act as promised? Uh, supply side economics, raising the minimum wage reduces employment, and host of other 'conservative' mantras that have never, ever been proven but yet we keep hearing this crap. Trot out a journalist, a hack, a science-fiction writer, and some B-grade pseudo-scientists from the Discovery institute or AEI to argue those points instead of allowing the whole world to laugh at your arguments. Ahh. sorry to rant, I feel better now. Thanks 2PJs!
ReplyDeleteUh, Milton, the US has engaged in supply side economics since Reagan instituted it over 20 years ago.
ReplyDeletePretty good track record.
Coming up next on Fox News: Why is Stephen Hawking afraid to debate Jessica Simpson on the subject of String Theory?
ReplyDeleteIf Al Gore is so brilliant, he would wipe the floor with the "deniers" and discredit them.
Of course, the cars in china quote shows he is not so brilliant. That and the fact George W. Bush beat him in the Presidential debates.
Milton, it must stick in your craw that the "B-grade pseudo-scientists" found the flaws in the hockey-stick graph and the NASA temperature measurements.
he would wipe the floor with the "deniers" and discredit them
ReplyDeleteFinally we agree about something.
For some reason even I don't understand, I checked your links, Mein Heir. The opinions expressed there are strident and amusing, but fail to support the case they attempt to make, even ignoring that the facts are extremely sparse, ambivalent, and unsupported.
ReplyDeleteYour author is a guy who never met a reactionary idea he couldn't write a paper to support.
xranger said:
ReplyDeleteUh, Milton, the US has engaged in supply side economics since Reagan instituted it over 20 years ago.
Pretty good track record. ????
Well, perhaps, doing a quick read on Wikipedia. But, in the last twenty years we have had unemployment, some recovery, increasing deficits and debt, increasing income disparity, an internet boom, a stock bubble, a balanced budget, a surplus, increasing income for most, a burst stock market bubble, terrorism, tax cuts and an increasing deficit, more debt, more income disparity, static wages for most of us, a dropping deficit, more income disparity… Pretty mixed track record, especially if you look at medians instead of averages or aggregates.
Although I will say there is weak evidence that increasing the minimum wage reduces future hiring, at least for a while.
Do you want to destroy the hold that corporations have over congress and the president? Simple. Organize and Demand progressive legislation from some of these corporations and do not buy from them until they get the GOP to get congress to enact this legislation.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to put an end to the Republiklan party, then
Send this letter to the Republican party now! Also put this on your web page so others can see it.
Copy and paste the letter below and email it directly to info@gop.com the Republican Party and get 2 friends to send this letter and have those 2 friends get 2 friends to send it and so on. Thank you. Drop me a message to info@dmocrats.org with the subject Done after you have sent the email.
Hello
Get your Republican party to end the war in Iraq, with Bush and Cheney resigning, and until you do we stop buying televisions, refrigerators, stoves, ovens, dishwashers, dvd players, stereo equipment, light bulbs from one of your party's major contributors and War contractors General Electric Corporation ( 203 373 2211 ) who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
Get your Republican party to remove the FICA taxable income cap and tax all of a person's income for social security purposes and enact HR 676 Single payer universal health care into law and repeal Medicare Part D and place the prescription drug benefit in Medicare Part B covering 80 percent of all medication with no extra premiums, no extra deductibles, no means tests, no coverage gaps, and completely remove the means test to Medicare Part B and until you do, we will not buy consumer products and prescription drugs from one of the biggest pharmacy chains and GOP contributors in the country, Rite Aid, who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
Get your Republican party to enact a $10 an hour minimum wage, and until you do, we will not go to the following restaurants and GOP contributors Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Dominos Pizza who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
Get your Republican party to enact into law Universal vote by mail with paper ballots counted by civil servants with civil servants registering voters and keeping track of registrations, and until you do, we will not buy any GOP contributor Dell computers or monitors or go to the following restaurants and GOP contributors Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Dominos Pizza who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
Get your Republican party to get congress to pass and enact a law legalizing abortions from conception to six months, and to nine months when the life of the mother appears threatened, and until you do we stop doing business with two of your biggest contributors Dominos Pizza and Curves for Women Health Clubs.
Signed,
Yo, dude, your tinfoil hat is crooked.
ReplyDeleteBeam me up, Scotty...