Category Archives: Politics

Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto (Hardcover)

Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto

From Publishers Weekly

Author and conservative talk radio host Levin (Rescuing Sprite, Men in Black) takes on the Statist, a liberal straw man, in this collection of polemics against left-wing tenets (like “economic and social justice”), touchstones (like the New Deal) and institutions (strongholds of liberal thought like academia and the mainstream media). With “an insatiable appetite for control” and a veil of “moral indignation,” Levin finds the Statist not only in congressional Democrats and President Obama’s White House, but in “neo-Statists” like compassionate conservative Michael Gerson, and the Fed and Treasury under G.W. Bush. Many of Levin’s arguments reiterate familiar tropes, including a “strict constructionist” view of the Constitution that sees Social Security as patently un-American. Predictably, Levin opposes the extension of health benefits, derides global warming (implicating Obama’s “global warming czar” as a leader in “the Socialist International’s C (more…)

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Politics: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)

Politics: A Novel (P.S.)

From Publishers Weekly

In this nervy, self-conscious debut novel, British writer Thirlwell airs the unspoken anxieties and confusions of two lovers, crafting a talky deconstruction of a relationship. Moshe is a character actor, “the sketchy one, the sardonic one, the oddball cool”; Nana is an architecture student, “tall, thin, pale, blonde, breasty.” It is the off-stage narrator, however, who is the book’s most notable presence, with his countless digressions, “simple” theories, lengthy explanations and bossy directives. Despite his repeated assertions that the book is not about sex (“sex isn’t everything”; “sometimes I think that this book is an attack on sex”), Moshe and Nana are constantly experimenting (“oral sex, use of alternative personae, lesbianism, undinism”), though their experiments usually end in failure. This is true of their biggest experiment, a three-way affair involving Anjali, an Anglo-Indian actor friend of Moshe’s. Reading Thirlwell’s novel is simil (more…)

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    Hardball : How Politics Is Played Told By One Who Knows The Game (Paperback)

    Hardball : How Politics Is Played Told By One Who Knows The Game

    Amazon.com Review

    Hardball, first published in 1988, is like a modern version of Machiavelli’s The Prince, only much more richly illustrated, with anecdotes drawn from talk-show host Chris Matthews’s stint as a congressional staffer (where he worked for, among others, renowned Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill). Discussing such basic principles as “It’s not who you know; it’s who you get to know” and “Don’t get mad, don’t get even–get ahead,” Matthews not only dishes out choice Washington insider info, he has over the years inspired many readers to apply his principles for political success to their own professional lives.

    From Publishers Weekly

    A former Senate aide, presidential speech writer and assistant to Tip O’Neill, Matthews here offers an entertaining view of Washington politics. He covers much the same ground as Hedrick Smith’s The Power Game but writes more informally and with amused tolerance of “the true believers in the power of poli (more…)

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