rigorousintuition.ca

Just one of those pesky message board perennial questions to give each other a taste of what everyone else is into at the moment. No pressure!<br><br>Me, I've currently got some mundane fare on the go.<br><br>A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies, by NSA expert/insider James Bamford<br><br>Bamford is perplexing to me. The first third of his book has pretty much been a rehashing of the events of 9/11 (albiet in a gripping way, featuring new-to-me details about what was going on at the NSA and other intel agencies at the time), followed by a bunch of chapters devoted to portraying the CIA as basically a mostly harmless Toastmasters club for investor class Ivory Leaguers who go on to highly unspectacular careers with dead-giveaway embassy contractor jobs as "cover". That got me to thinking. Could there, in fact, be two CIAs? Anyhoo, not much about the Pretext for War, yet.<br><br>The other one I've got on the go is Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America, by Bertram Gross. <br><br>A book from the late seventies, and it now seems prophetic. Gross examines how the corporate, governmental and military elite are using a pervassive propaganda campaign to inculcate a "friendly" form of fascism into all of our hearts and minds. A classic. I recommend it highly.<br><br>Also, Jeff's recent post inspired me to crack open my Lovecraft Treasury and give The Color Out of Space another read. Damn creepy! Excellent yarn.<br> <p></p><i></i>

i do wonder how some of you can read novels and all of the posts and links and news that are covered here<br>i spend at least an hour of my employers time reading a day, read on the train for an hour and read at night with a joint and a glass of wine as often as possible and i just cant keep up<br>just printed 10 pages of mason gaffney economics from wolf pauli, a whole bunch of thomas hatmann essays on democracy and by the time i get to work tommorow there will be even more essential reading for me and ive only scratched the surface of the stuff on this site<br>if i could buy an extra brain with USB connection i'd i'd be laughing <p></p><i></i>

Reading Vallee's <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Revelations</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> and Chic Cicero's <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>The Essential Golden Dawn</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->.<br><br>I've also pulled out some old fiction I hope to reread, or at least poke through. Lovecraft as well, naturally, Colin Wilson's Lovecraftian <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>The Philosopher's Stone</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->, and Charles Williams' novels.<br> <p></p><i></i>

"The Taking" by Dean Koontz<br>"Silent Coup" by Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin<br>"Pigs at the Trough" by Arianna Huffington <p></p><i></i>

two Griffin Tarpleys old and new<br><br>Unauthorized biography of GWHBush and<br><br>911 Synthetic Terror: Made in the USA<br><br>Haven't gotten far in the latter, am reading this board and others too much.<br><br> <p>PW</p><i></i>

Apart from my ever-shifting pile of logico-mathematico-philosophical stuff... <br>Daniel Defoe's <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>A Journal of the Plague Year</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> and Lord Acton's <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Lectures on Modern History</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->.<br><br>smiths said: "i do wonder how some of you can read novels and all of the posts and links and news that are covered here"<br><br>Don't worry, be happy. Read for an hour and you'll want 2 hours, 2 will get you wanting 4, 4 and you'll want 8, and so on. You only get to a fraction of the worthwhile stuff however much time you invest. Keeping up with current events is important, but I find that one deep analysis is worth more than a bushel of news items. Grasp the underlying causes and structures, and the rest falls into place. A book I read recently by Michael Hudson, <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Super Imperialism: The Origin and Fundamentals of US World Dominance</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->, definitely fits that category. He's interviewed about it here: <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/shaefer04232003.html">www.counterpunch.org/shae...32003.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>"i spend at least an hour of my employers time reading a day, read on the train for an hour and read at night with a joint and a glass of wine as often as possible... <br>just printed 10 pages of mason gaffney economics from wolf pauli..."<br><br>Enjoy the Gaffney, he does reach those underlying causes and structures. (I posted a brief article by him today, 'Bottling the air', on the thread of that name.) And take a toke for me. I've been out for weeks.<br> <p></p><i></i>

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn "The Gulag Archipelago"<br><br>Elaine Scarry "The Body in Pain"<br><br>Very uplifting.<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :| --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/indifferent.gif ALT=":|"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>

GREAT question -- Some excellant titles listed in reply. Since my eye-opening epiphany of how thoroughly subverted US politics, economy and society the US has been by the Corporatocracy's pulling-off of the 911-pretext for Global Conquest via War on Terror, my reading has mostly consisted of online website research, documents, and following critical-thought newsgroup discussions. I rather 'miss' the days when I could thoroughly relish a well-told tale, ie. the great delight I had in reading L Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth -- without feeling it was a self-indulgent distraction from the current crisis of democracy under seige.<br><br>To that end, I've been casually reading John Perkin's Confessions of an Economic Hitman, and Amy Goodman's Exceptions to the Rulers. To 'lighten' such rather disheartening fare of widespread abuse of power and corruption, I try to find some balance with the two volume collection of Poems for the Millenium, put out by the University of California -- Book of Modern and Postmodern Poetry edited by Jerome Rothenberg. It 'helps' to place contemporary events in some larger perspective. But I kinda feel like more aware members of pre-WW II Germany must have felt watching the Nazi's rise to absolute power, in their run-up program to violate the human spirit -- aided and abetted by the same kind <br>-- and in some instances even the identical --dynasties and power-cliques that today are principle actors in the perpetual war scam. In that the citizenry have become so dumbed-down, cynical and distracted, and unwittingly duped-heirs to a thoroughly fraudulent election system, what else can reasonable people do but seek to be better informed and plant seeds of information, to Keep Hope Alive?<br>Starman<br><!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :D --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/happy.gif ALT=":D"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>

Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" keeps me sane.<br>Because of repeated mentions on RI, I realized I had James Ellroy's "American Tabloid" in my library and had never read it. It's got me depressed because it is set in a pivotal era of American history when we could have stopped the neo-con juggernaut had we been able to hold some of them responsible for the murder of JFK.Alas, we failed, and now it seems there is nothing to do but talk and write about it.<br>For sheer crazy sexy fun I read Janet Evanovichs Stephanie Plum series- currently on "To the Nines"<br>Also, I'm in college, working toward a degree in Legal Studies- you would be surprised at how interesting "Wills, Trusts, and Estates" has turned out to be. <p></p><i></i>

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Sticking close to my usual reseach ouevre lately:<br><br>The Merger: The Conglomeration of International Orgnized Crime, by Jeffrey Robinson, Overlook Press, 2000<br><br>As good an overview as one is likely to find in one volume.<br><br>Re-reading <br><br>Yakuza, by David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro<br><br>Dark Alliance, by Gary Webb<br><br>also, a novel:<br><br>Triangle of Death, by Michael Levine and Laura Kavanau<br><br>Levine is former DEA, now whistleblower and host of <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.expertwitnessradio.org/">www.expertwitnessradio.org/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> He's the guy who wrote the non-fiction memoirs Deep Cover and The Big White Lie, along with Kavanau (his wife.)<br><br>This one is more of a fiction-based-on-fact- not really a roman a clef, but sort of an autobiographical narrative focusing on Levine's DEA undercover work overseas. It's better than I thought it would be. <br><br>To listen to the radio show, or the archives: <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.expertwitnessradio.org/listen/">www.expertwitnessradio.org/listen/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p097.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=robertdreed>robertdreed</A> at: 8/23/05 10:15 pm<br></i>

I love threads like this. They remind me that not everyone in the world is completely illiterate. Somebody has to be buying those books right?<br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Psychic Self Defense</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> by Dion Fortune.<br><br>I've been meaning to get to this for years.<br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>THEM: Adventures with Extremists</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> by Jon Ronson<br><br>Great book. Can't wait to get his new one.<br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Men Of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> by Gerard Jones.<br><br>Simply amazing and highly recommended.<br><br>On deck: <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Le Mystere des Cathedrales</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> by Fulcanelli<br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p097.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=professorhex@rigorousintuition>ProfessorHex</A> at: 5/23/05 1:20 am<br></i>

The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson, Messages in Water by Emoto, and Operation Zero Point by Nick Cook were excellent, as well as Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins. (Oppose CAFTA!!). <br>I'm now working on The Broken Cross by Piers Compton; Out of Darkness: Exploring Satanism and Ritual Abuse by Sakheim and Devine; Psychedelic Shamanism by Dekorne; and The Journal of Psychohistory. A great article about 9/11:<br><br>"Retd. Lt. Colonel Robert Bowman spoke about the hijacking timeline for 9/11 ... "If normal communications, common sense actions, had taken place between the airlines, air traffic control, FAA, NORAD, and the interceptor bases, the interceptors would have arrived in time to save both the World Trade Center and the Pentagon with many minutes to spare. So while I conclude that the fighter pilots themselves were not culpable, <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>somebody was</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->. The question is who was it? <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>No one has been courtmartialed. No one has been reprimanded. No one has been demoted. <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>No one is to blame.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->.That only tells me one thing. The ones to blame are too high up to play scapegoat.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> (Bolded parts by me, the rest are in the actual quote).<br><br>Article by Matt Everett: <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and 9/11:A scandal Beyond What Has Been Seen Before</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br>The Journal of Psychohistory, Volume 32, Vol 3, Winter 2005<br><br>IMHO when the chips roll and nothing happens, it's the manipulators who are "too high up to play scapegoat" - and they are the same old players - BFEE and HRH to ID the obvious.<br><br>Great article and a must read. Love this thread and this board!! <p></p><i></i>

I love books about politics and the onset of friendly fascism we've been speaking about in many threads. I have been reading Tarpley's "9/11: Synthetic Terrorism Made in USA". It is a very good book, highly recommended, don't you agree Willow?<br><br>I am also reading Martha Grimes book "Foul Matter" to lighten up a bit from the horror of reality. <p></p><i></i>

I'm signed up with the Psychohistory-HistoricalMotivations yahoogroup, myself.<br><br>I'm waiting for Coming Home to the Pleistocene by Paul Shepard to show up in my mailbox, from Amazon.com. <p></p><i></i>