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OCTOBER 2009 READING SCHEDULE
United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)
DIGGING DEEPER meets every Monday from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma, WA.
Since July 2004, United for Peace of Pierce County has been conducting “Digging Deeper,” a Monday-evening book discussion group, often in the form of a study circle. Topics have included peak oil, climate change, the corporation, torture, Iran, U.S.-Iran relations, the writings of Robert Baer, Islam, American immigration policy, Barack Obama and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., Saul Alinsky’s life and writings, war and human nature, parallels between the U.S. and ancient Rome, the sustainability revolution, 9/11, energy geopolitics, the debt crisis, the 2000 and 2004 U.S. presidential elections, and the financial crisis, as well as abiding themes of war, peace, politics, and social change. Occasionally, the group has spent several weeks reading longer works, like Daniel Yergin’s The Prize or Robert Fisk’s The Great War for Civilisation. -- Participation is free and open; anyone interested is welcome. Try King's Books (218 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma) or other local bookstores for copies. More information: contact Mark Jensen (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or see www.ufppc.org.
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October 5, 2009: DIGGING DEEPER XCVIII — Ralph Nader’s "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!
—Ralph Nader, "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us! (Seven Stories Press, 2009). “This vivid fictional account by three-time presidential candidate and best-selling author Ralph Nader asks: What if several of America's wealthiest individuals decided it was time to work for the collective good? The story that unfolds returns us to the literature of American social movements-to Edward Bellamy, Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, and Stephen Crane. And ‘Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!’ is something else too, a reminder that real changes in America always start with the imagination.” —Book description.
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October 12, 2009: DIGGING DEEPER XCIX – The American way of war
—Eugene Jarecki, The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril (Free Press, 2008). "Eugene Jarecki, creator of the award-winning documentary ‘Why We Fight,’ launches a penetrating and revelatory inquiry into how forces within the American political, economic, and military systems have come to undermine the carefully crafted structure of our republic—upsetting its balance of powers, vastly strengthening the hand of the president in taking the nation to war, and imperiling the workings of American democracy." —Book description.
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October 19, 2009: DIGGING DEEPER C – Tanya Reinhart’s critique of Israeli policy toward the Palestinian people
—Tanya Reinhart, Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948, 2nd ed. (Seven Stories Press 2004). — “The most devastating critique now available of Israel's policy toward the Palestinian people.” —Edward W. Said. — “Dense and precise.” —Agnès Gruda, La Presse. — “Reinhart accomplishes the formidable task of adding insight to a subject that is written about endlessly.” —The Nation. — Reinhart is professor of linguistics and cultural studies at Tel Aviv Univ. and the Univ. of Utrecht. In 1994, following the Oslo agreements, she turned to political writing.
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October 26, 2009: DIGGING DEEPER CI – George Friedman's vision of the next 100 years
—George Friedman, The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century (Doubleday, 2009). “With a unique combination of cold-eyed realism and boldly confident fortune-telling, Friedman (America’s Secret War) offers a global tour of war and peace in the upcoming century. The author asserts that the United States power is so extraordinarily overwhelming that it will dominate the coming century, brushing aside Islamic terrorist threats now, overcoming a resurgent Russia in the 2010s and 20s, and eventually gaining influence over space-based missile systems that Friedman names battle stars. Friedman is the founder of Stratfor, an independent geopolitical forecasting company . . . [T]he later years of Friedman’s 100-year cycle . . . [read] as fantastic (and terrifying) science fiction. Whether all of the visions in Friedman’s crystal ball actually materialize, they certainly make for engrossing entertainment.” —Publishers Weekly.