Cybill Disobedience : How I Survived Beauty Pageants, Elvis, Sex, Bruce Willis, Lies, Marriage, Motherhood, Hollywood, and the Irrepressible Urge to Say What I Think

Book Description

Few women in the past three decades have lit up the American imagination like Cybill Shepherd. From wholesome beauty queen to saucy cover girl, from heartbreaking movie star (The Last Picture Show) to one of television's most beloved comediennes (Moonlighting and Cybill), she has imbued each of her roles--right down to her current passions as devoted mother of three, champion of women's issues, and sultry cabaret singer--with an indomitable spirit that has made her, at fifty, a female icon to an entire generation. Now in her much-anticipated memoir, she tells her remarkable story with humor, pathos, and more highlights than her famously blond hair. Cybill has absorbed the lessons of Southern womanhood, including the whispered message about sex: Wait until you're married, then you won't enjoy it, and certainly never speak of it. She gleefully disobeyed these and other rules of decorum in a career laced with controversy, featuring unforgettable cameos by Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, Orson Welles, Robert De Niro, and Jeff Bridges. Whether stepping on Elvis's blue suede shoes or going toe-to-toe with Bruce Willis, Cybill has never held anything back, and it's all in Cybill Disobedience, including:

the night a network executive tried to barter thirteen episodes for a horizontal tour of Cybill's bedroom

why she'll never be invited back to Ryan O'Neal's beach house or Marlon Brando's island

the time she greeted David Letterman in nothing but a towel

the real reason two of television's most popular and acclaimed series, died premature deaths

how she made Richard Nixon blush for the first and only time in his life

From her Memphis roots to her insider's track in Hollywood, Cybill Shepherd is a woman who has weathered every onslaught and withstood every rebuke to emerge as a luminous model of endurance, courage, and an insatiable lust for life.

Customer Reviews:

The Cybill Strikes Back!.......2007-05-07

I wanted to read this book mainly to see what Cybill would say about Bruce Willis and Moonlighting, one of my all-time favorite shows, and although I was left wanting more, she does give a few interesting tidbits about them. But even if she hadn't this would still be a page turner.

Most references to Cybill Shepherd by the media over the years have been negative. I just wanted to hear her side of her story for a change and I have no problem with this so-called 'B-list' actor making a few bucks in the process.

While I don't approve of or agree with everything Cybill says she's done or believes in, this little book is a small interesting slice of history and a record of how things work behind the scenes of the modeling and acting professions. The message I got is 'proceed with extreme caution - or better yet choose another career.'

Also, my belief that Hollywood culture is depraved in general remains unshaken after reading this. And you certainly can't blame it all on Cybill Shepherd.

Even so, I appreciate what I believe is Cybill's candor about herself, the people she's met and her experiences which is written with a witty humor and a verbal style I appreciate.

You Know...She May Be A B-List Celebrity But This Isn't That Bad A Book.......2005-10-16

I don't know what compelled me to check this out from the library since I didn't really know who Cybill Shepherd was, but she kept me reading with her honesty and `dang-it-it's-true' breed of self-flattery. In this autobiography, the star of the '80's TV hit Moonlighting (when she mentioned Moonlighting, I was finally like, "Oh, I know who she is...") candidly talks about the cut-throat world of Hollywood, tells about how Hef, of Playboy fame, stole images from her nude scene and improperly published them, talks about an affair with Elvis (who "charmed" her by telling her in one of his pill-popping hazes about the time a doctor gave him an injection directly into the pupil of his eye!!!!!) and throws caution to the wind and dodges claims of skankhood by talking about a seemingly unending series of affairs with scores of married and unmarried men, from her beauty queen teen years in Memphis, well into her fifties. Shepherd name-drops and that's the making of this book since it's most interesting when the focus is not on her. She tells about having Orson Welles as a long-term house guest, about how she introduced Elvis to certain amorous technique, tells of clashes with Bruce Willis, whose ego was a match for her own, and provides tell-all revelations about some of the biggest stars in the movie business during the 1970's. Shepherd is also doggedly committed to certain feminist causes and gives ink to her views on them. This book is definitely a celebrity stroking her ego, but it's not dull or preachy and since it can be read in about two hours, it's not a bad way to spend a free afternoon.

I'm blonde, I'm beautiful, and don't you forget it!.......2005-05-20

Truly the title sums up the whole of this autobiography. I wonder if Ms. Shepherd hadn't believed so deeply in her ephemeral outer beauty, maybe others wouldn't have assumed that that's all she had going for her.

Conspicuously absent from her story were her relationships with her siblings, which were touched on ever-so-briefly toward the end, tellingly admitting that they had a tenuous connection at best, their sibling bonds having been sacrificed at the alter of Shepherd's career.

Cybill Shepherd spent her life being promiscuous, including involvment with married men, and lays it all out for the record, no matter how it makes her look. It's amazing to me that she never came away from fling after short-term fling not feeling used or taken advantage of.

The comment that rings the loudest to me, out of everything she crammed furiously into this book, was the fact that she tried to make '5 minutes feel like 5 hours' with her kids, as if that were possible. Although she does go on to admit that it is simply not possible to do it all.

Contradictory to me is the fact that Ms. Shepherd found lurid tabloid stories to be embarassing and insulting to herself and her children, but she voluntarily lays bare all her personal laundry.

I picked up this book because I fondly remember Moonlighting as must-see TV of my teenage years, Maddie Hayes and David Addison being the best on-screen couple of my generation. Although that was just one small part of Cybill's story, I did find the Hollywood insider stuff a fun guilty pleasure.

One last criticism - the subtitle is far too long and completely unnecessary, bordering on downright silly.

Example of one version of the Liberated Life.......2004-08-24

Cybill Disobedience : How I Survived Beauty Pageants, Elvis, Sex, Bruce Willis, Lies, Marriage, Motherhood, Hollywood, and the Irrepressible Urge to Say What I Think
by Cybill Shepherd

This was an interesting read and useful as a resource since it is a first person description of the kind of life one can lead as a liberated (using the pill) female. Not only was Cybill successful, but as she says, she was "a very, very, bad girl." Cybill did what she wanted to do.

Regardless of whether or not this sort of life should be recommended, it is certainly a resource that can be referred to as an example.

You have to be a big fan, to find all of this interesting........2004-04-19

Some interesting comments about show business, and about some of the people she worked with, and went to bed with. The last part, about her TV show, "Cybill," would only interest a BIG fan of the show. (Who did what and who said what about the show's individual episodes isn't exactly gripping reading.) (I'm glad it's a short book.)

The Spirit of Disobedience: Resisting the Charms of Fake Politics, Mindless Consumption, and the Culture of Total Work

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Row, row, row your own boat........
Turn off the tube, come read this!
superb in the thickets

The Spirit of Disobedience: Resisting the Charms of Fake Politics, Mindless Consumption, and the Culture of Total Work
Curtis White
Manufacturer: Polipoint Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Practical Politics | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0977825310

Book Description

A funny, wide-ranging discourse on the current sociopolitical scene, The Spirit of Disobedience debunks the notion that liberalism has no need for spirituality and describes a “middle way” between the red state/blue state impasse. Through scathing, controversial analyses of The Da Vinci Code, Office Space, and Brokeback Mountain, as well as pointed critiques of liberal spokesmen Bill Maher and Al Franken, Curtis White moves the reader forcefully toward an old but neglected American form of thought first spelled out in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. He urges readers to renew their commitment to what Thoreau termed “human fundamentals”: work, home, and food. Three intriguing, inspiring interviews with John De Graaf (Affluenza), James Howard Kunstler (The Long Emergency), and Michael Ableman (Fields of Plenty) continue the dialog of renewal and refusal, offering fresh ways to think about work, housing, transportation, and food.

Customer Reviews:

Row, row, row your own boat...............2007-08-28

Any one who wants to live life deliberately instead of going about the business of life as laid out by others of whom you may never be aware needs to read this book.

Turn off the tube, come read this!.......2007-07-06

If you get very tired of what passes for debate in this country, try this book on for size. White calls it like it is -- Democrats and Republicans claim to be so different, but they are basically both about keeping society this way it is, "good for business"; capitalism is bankrupt spiritually, leading to an unsustainable work/life balance for families, and a lousy car-centric suburbia landscape that has alienated ourselves from ourselves. I really liked his critiques of familiar pop-culture artifacts like the Simpsons and Office Space because often in a book like this, these pieces, accessible to general audiences, are ignored disdainfully. He also leaves you with some hope, which most critics don't get around to. Turn off the tube and give yourself some stimulation, read the book.

superb in the thickets.......2007-04-19

This book is ofcourse fantastic. Like the Middle Mind, it unhinges you from being ok with being a zombie. Superb in the thickets, if I may steal. How do you live when you can't honestly live a happy and decent life these days without taking out the horse blinders is the only thing worth thinking/reading about.
Also- I had no idea Curtis White had written another non fiction book. Even his Harpers article didn't mention that he was about to come out with a new book- actually I got the article off of Lexis Nexis so perhaps thats the kind of garbling I didn't pay for.

Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America (Polemics)

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Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America (Polemics)
Frances Fox Piven
Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0742515354

Book Description

Challenging Authority argues that ordinary people exercise real power in American politics mainly at those extraordinary moments when they rise up in anger and hope, defy the rules that ordinarily govern their daily lives, and by doing so, disrupt the workings of the institutions in which they are enmeshed. These are the conditions that produce the democratic moments in American political development.

Civil Disobediences: Poetics and Politics in Action

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YOUR DUTY AS A POET
Offers a series of essays, lectures, and teaching materials

Civil Disobediences: Poetics and Politics in Action

Manufacturer: Coffee House Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1566891582

Book Description

As cultural absurdities, apathy-inspiring ambient noise, and political and ecological disasters threaten the 21st-century world, art's role in engaging society and coalescing dissent becomes more apparent and more urgent. Civil Disobediences offers a manual for understanding poetry's history and enacting its ultimate power to dismantle and recreate political and cultural realities.

Composed of essays, lectures and teaching materials by leading contemporary poets and scholars, this anthology explores the craft of poetry, as well as the history of poetic/political action in the U.S. and abroad, the development of ancient and modern poetic forms, the legacy of world-renowned poets, and the intersections between poetry and spirituality. It also provides concrete advice about bringing poetry into your local community and ensuring that "poetry is news that stays news."

Editor Anne Waldman is an internationally acclaimed poet, performer, cultural activist, and distinguished -professor of poetics at Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. She is the author of over 40 books, including Vow to Poetry: Essays, Interviews, & Manifestos and the recent collection In the Room of Never Grieve: New and Selected Poems 1985â€“2003.

Editor Lisa Birman is a poet and writer from Melbourne, Australia. Her books include Some Things-Poems and Translations, Deportation Poems, and the forthcoming possibly. Birman is the co-founder of Movie Star Press and co-director of Naropa University's Summer Writing Program.

Contributors include: Helen Adam, Ammiel Alcalay, Amiri Baraka, Ted Berrigan, Robin Blaser, Reed Bye, Jack Collum, Robert Creeley, Samuel R. Delany, Robert Duncan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Alan Gilbert, Allen Ginsberg, James Grauerholtz, Barbara Guest, Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Anselm Hollo, Laird Hunt, Pierre Joris, Joanne Kyger, Ann Lauterbach, Harryette Mullen, Eileen Myles, Alice Notley, Michael Ondaatje, Sonia Sanchez, Edward Sanders, Eleni Sikelianos, Gary Snyder, Cole Swenson, Arthur Sze, Steven Taylor, Robert Tejada, Lorenzo Thomas and more.

Customer Reviews:

YOUR DUTY AS A POET.......2006-07-02

It's your duty as a poet to speak the world into a new existence! Hurray! This anthology is packed with inspiring essays and fueled with Ms. Waldmans passion for "keeping the world safe for poetry". Be inspired!

Offers a series of essays, lectures, and teaching materials .......2004-09-10

The collaborative compilation and editorial organization of Anne Waldman (poet, performer, cultural activist, and Distinguished Professor of Poetics at Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics) and Lisa Birman (Australian poet and co-founder of "Movie Star Press, and Co-Director of Naropa University's Summer Writing Program), Civil Disobediences: Poetics And Politics In Action offers a series of essays, lectures, and teaching materials contributed by leading contemporary poets and scholars. Within the pages of this unique volume are writings by Alice Notley, Robert Creeley, Samuel R. Delany, and many others, exploring the craft of poetry and the history of poetic/political action both here and abroad. Perhaps one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking assertions is that "poetry is news that stays news". Civil Disobediences is strongly recommended to the attention of anyone who appreciates informed and informative discourse that has as its parameters the politics of poetry and the poetry of politics.

Obligations: Essays on Disobedience, War, and Citizenship

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Obligations: Essays on Disobedience, War, and Citizenship
Michael Walzer
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0674630254

Book Description

In this collection of essays, Michael Walzer discusses how obligations are incurred, sustained, and (sometimes) abandoned by citizens of the modern state and members of political parties and movements as they respond to and participate in the most crucial and controversial aspects of citizenship: resistance, dissent, civil disobedience, war, and revolution. Walzer approaches these issues with insight and historical perspective, exhibiting an extraordinary understanding for rebels, radicals, and rational revolutionaries. The reader will not always agree with Walzer but he cannot help being stimulated, excited, challenged, and moved to thoughtful analysis.

The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy

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Typical liberal rhetoric.
A wonderful anthology of our greatest historian.
Wake up and smell the truth.
And It Makes Me Wonder...
wonderful, and moving

The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy
Howard Zinn
Manufacturer: Seven Stories Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1888363541

Customer Reviews:

Typical liberal rhetoric........2005-03-26

I first read passages from this book in college. I can now see how liberal professors very much enjoy using this book to influence young minds. Professor Zinn is a far left author. He uses the usual lines: America generally bad, communism generally good. Obviously Mr. Zinn has the right to write whatever he wants, and his writing style is very convincing. However, if the reader investigates the facts, many holes become visible in his theories. Those who agree and disagree with his writings should explore opposite viewpoints. A good example is "Intellectual Morons : How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas by Daniel J. Flynn" which gives the reader a good profile of Mr. Zinn.

A wonderful anthology of our greatest historian........2002-12-13

Howard Zinn is an eloquent but plain spoken writer. His essays are a joy to read, something that cannot be said of so many historians. This is in part because, Zinn is not afraid to admit that he is an interpreter of events, he colors his writings with his own ideals, interprets the past in light of what he has lived through, illuminating events and the lives of people who may have otherwise been forgotten, so that we can learn something of ourselves in their stories. Zinn's writings on events of the twentieth century are special in that he has participated in so many important historical movements, from being a WWII bombardier, to teaching in an all black girls' college during the civil rights movement, through protesting the Vietnam War and beyond. He is not afraid to state his beliefs, but is never condescending. He is a believer in the spirit of humanity, in spite of all the atrocities he has seen and studied. This massive collection spans many years and many topics. There is not an uninteresting essay in the nearly 700 pages, though, making this quite a bargain at that. Don't pass this book up. Even if you don't consider yourself of the "leftist" persuasion, I think you will find Zinn's writings very engaging and enjoyable. I hope you do.

Wake up and smell the truth........2002-10-17

"A People's History of the United States" forever changed the way I viewed the world and the system I grew up in. Continuing that tradition, "The Zinn Reader..", wakes up a desire in one's soul to rise up and do something about the injustices and hypocrisies that have dominated our past and continued to swallow our present. Professor Zinn write clearly, honestly, and furiously about topics ranging from the distribution of wealth to the ideal uses of scholarship and intellectualism. He lacks no emotion or fury, unlike many other historians. The main challenge Zinn makes it to exercise free thought, and "to be skeptical of someone else's reality." Very few historians, or writers for that matter, dare to look at the world from the perspective of the poor, the disenfranchised, the bombed, the murdered, the jailed, the conquered, the victim, but Zinn does exactly that, and in doing so puts out a masterful collection that not only instructs us in History, but also challenges our humanity and our place in the world.

And It Makes Me Wonder..........2002-01-03

Why wasn't I told this earlier? How come I must pain myself to find the truth? Why are there so few books such as this? Why aren't more men and women revealing the actualities? Why all the subversions? Be willing to alter your vision of the world.

wonderful, and moving.......2001-10-30

I first checked out "The Zinn Reader" this past summer because my senior high-school history teacher had us read some Zinn for a final paper. Thank God she had us read that. The Zinn Reader has changed, or at least re-enforced, ideas that i have long held about several topics. While Zinn is not infallible, the ideas are splendid, and wonderful to see in print. Big book, but you don't have to go straight through...pick which essays interst you. you won't regret it

Disarmed and Dangerous: The Radical Life and Times of Daniel and Philip Berrigan, Brothers in Religious Faith and Civil Disobedience

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An inspiring read
AN IMPORTANT AND WELL DONE NEW BOOK ABOUT THE BERRIGANS!

Disarmed and Dangerous: The Radical Life and Times of Daniel and Philip Berrigan, Brothers in Religious Faith and Civil Disobedience
Murray Polner , and Jim O'Grady
Manufacturer: Westview Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0813334497

Book Description

Disarmed and Dangerous is a fascinating study of brothers linked by faith and the dreams of peace and social justice in a century bloodied by war, mass murders, and weapons of immense destructive power. It is, above all, an original contribution to modern American history that is sure to be widely read and discussed.

Customer Reviews:

An inspiring read.......2003-12-04

Not having been alive in the 60s and 70s, I had heard the Berrigan brothers mentioned among Catholic (and non-Catholic) peace-and-justice types, but had no idea about the tremendous work they did (that daniel is still doing) and the huge impact they made in the struggle for social justice, peace, integration, and social morality. This is a must-read, not only for those interested in the Catholic Left, but for anyone who is mired in the day-to-day skirmishes against an oppressive government. This book entertains AND inspires!

AN IMPORTANT AND WELL DONE NEW BOOK ABOUT THE BERRIGANS!.......2000-11-19

The most famous Roman Catholics in America in the 1960's were two priests who were (still are) brothers: Philip and Daniel Berrigan, the former a priest member of the Society Of St. Joseph (commonly known as the "Josephites," an order dedicated to serving the Black community), the latter a Jesuit. SSJ and SJ respectively.

Starting in the 1960's, these two priests broke a lot of laws, and served a lot of time in various jails and prisons. They became famous as objectors to the War In Vietnam, and later expanded their respective "ministries of protest" to other situations of social injustice, as they perceived it.

Murray Polner and Jim O'Grady have written a fascinating account of the Berrigan brothers worth buying and reading. The Berrigan brothers became famous as two ninths of the "Catonsville (Maryland, USA) Nine," a group of protesters who, on May 17, 1968, raided a suburban Baltimore (Maryland, USA) draft board office, took its files of eligible young men about to be drafted into military service and possible combat in the then on-going War In Viet-Nam, and burned the draft board's records in a nearby parking lot, using a home made form of napalm. Only some of the records were removed and burned. The records left behind were stained with blood the two priests helped to pour over those records as a symbolic protest about the work of the draft board in promoting the War.

That was only the start of the civil protest career of these two men. In the same year (1968), they traveled to Hanoi (the same year Jane Fonda did.) In succeeding years and decades, they continued their dramatic forms of protest, and were often jailed and served hard time in tough prisons.

The story of the Berrigan Brothers is one every enthusiast about the social revolution of the 1960's should read. All Roman Catholics should read it, too, especially Josephites and Jesuits. These two priests put those two Catholic religious orders in the NEW YORK TIMES and in other prominent media many times, and in some ways no doubt determined the future of those orders, the Catholic Church (especially in the USA), and the USA itself.

Book Description

In the long war against terrorism, the US Government had taken on extraordinary powers. And now that the war was won, powerful forces in the government had no intention of relinquishing those powers. As in 1860, the country was on the verge of civil war. And as in 1860, a leader arose to save the country-but it was not the President this time. Instead, the Governor of Texas was the woman of destiny. . . .

Customer Reviews:

dont even call this Sci Fi.......2007-09-21

This book is so stereo typed and over the top, that the only thing it could be considered is political satire. It is so poorly written that I have removed anything else written by Kratman from my wish list. Especially after previewing his next book at Baen's web site. He is so far right wing in these books, that he is beyond the fringe.
I have no problem with the sci fi concept of suspending disbelief, bu he goes too far to be credibly considered a Sci Fi writer.
I've been an avid Sci Fi reader since the late 50's, and have a book collection that is beyond 5000 titles that I have kept thru 4 moves. This is the first title I intend to not keep. He is an embarrassment to Heinlein, Leinster, Reynolds and Norton. He even makes the Gor novels, especially the later books seem almost mainstream.

Texas Secedes from the Union . . . Again.......2007-07-30

A State of Disobedience (2003) is a standalone near future SF novel. The USA had become steadily more polarized between the two national parties until a balance of sorts was reached. Yet this equilibrium was very unstable, threatening to collapse at any time. Then a Democratic Presidential candidate won the election.

In this novel, Wilhelmina Rottemeyer, President-Elect of the United States of America, glories in the Democratic control of the White House and Congress. Now the rich individuals and corporations will be taxed to the limit to provide for the poor. Medical care, education and most other services will be taken away from state control and provided to all through the federal government. Federal police forces will be greatly expanded and charged with the elimination of organized and disorganized crime.

Juanita Montoya-Serasin de Seguin is the Democratic governor of the state of Texas. Although in the same party as Willy Rottemeyer, Juanita is rather more conservative than the President. As the mother of four strong boys, she had been elected, at least partly, on her image of maternal warmth.

John Lewis Schmidt is a Major General in the Texas National Guard. As Adjutant-General, he is the commander of all Army National Guard units within the state. His commander is the state governor, Juanita Seguin.

Father Jorge Montoya is priest of the Dei Gloria Mission in Waco, Texas. He is also the older brother of the governor of Texas and a very close friend of Jack Schmidt. During the Vietnam War, Sergeant Montoya had saved the life of Lieutenant Schmidt.

When an anti-abortion group torches a clinic in Dallas, federal agents assault the main offices of Catholics for Children and kill the staff. Father Flores witnesses the attack on his organization and flees to the Dei Gloria Mission. He is not very welcome these, but Father Jorge cannot send him back to the federal killers.

When the shooting starts at Father Jorge's Mission, all the dead are federal agents, shot by young Elpida and Julio after the SAC starts to draw his sidearm. Unfortunately, one special agent gets away and the mission is soon surrounded with federal police and armored vehicles. Happily, the US Army is sitting this one out, but FBI, BATF and even the Surgeon General's Police are waiting to assault the facility. The Hostage Rescue Team has snipers ready to take out any armed perps.

In this story, Jack Schmidt sends a National Guard helicopter with a double load of arms and ammunition into the mission courtyard. The HRT snipers shoot several of Father Jorge's older kids. Finally, Army attack choppers blanket the compound with rockets and gatling gun rounds.

The Feds kill everybody in the mission except for Elpida, the mother of Pedro. The death toll includes twenty-five young children and the baby Pedro. These children all burn to death in the fire set by incendiary rockets, so their funeral is closed casket.

The state of Texas secedes from the Union. This time, the secession is fully covered on the internet. The funeral is witnessed by everyone in the world who cares to watch. So are the actions of the Texas State Legislature as they vote to secede.

This story follows the military and political maneuvering of both the USA and Texas. For the most part, the US Army sits out the initial assaults, but soon become involved after Texas forces secure the Western Currency Facility in Dallas. Many of the US forces are federal police units, including most of those who had been at the Dei Gloria Mission.

The story reads much like a prequel to Piper and McGuire's A Planet for Texans. Yet the state of Texas does not migrate to another planet in this tale. Texas has one of the biggest space industries in the world, but this story takes place in the near future and thus does not include interstellar flight. Still, the internal dissension is strong enough in Texas to send most of the population offplanet if only sufficient spaceflight capabilities were available. Maybe future political disputes will provide another opportunity.

What Texas does have in this timeframe is military bases and personnel (both active duty and retired). Since the US military is offended by the political posturing and ploys of the Liberal wing of the Democratic party, several military decisions are weighted in favor of the Texans. When Third Corps withdraws from Fort Hood, they leave behind tons of ammunition and equipment that should have been transported out or destroyed. Eventually, the party hacks in Washington totally alienate the US military, including the newly selected Chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Highly recommended for Kratman fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of political stratagems, military strategy and personal relationships.

-Arthur W. Jordin

A Frightening but Plausible Scenario for the Near Term.......2007-06-12

What happens when the USA is almost evenly divided between the two political parties and then an election throws all of the power to one of them?

What happens when the party in power decides to consolidate a permanent hold on power by criminalizing opposing political speech and does so with the full support of the media?

What happens when the Constitution becomes a meaningless rag while the federal government moves to centralize everything?

What happens when the governor of one state decides she just cannot take the abuses emanating from her own party any more?

A plausible answer to these questions is the story of this book. It can sometimes be infuriating when recent events are recognized. It is almost always horrifying when plausibilities are realized. It is terrifying when the call to resistance is gratified. It is chilling throughout.

This book may serve merely as a story to some. To others it will be a wakeup call. To the former, it does provide for interesting reading. To the latter, it provides for interesting nightmares.

Not worth the paper it is printed on.......2007-04-03

I bought this book because I read Watch on the Rhine and thought that was an enjoyable read. This book was just absolutely horrible. The politics offended me at every level. In addition, the characters were all cardboard and stereotypic. The sexism and rascism in the author's beliefs were hard to disguise. I will never buy another book by this author again.

Unreadable; can I award negative stars?.......2006-12-02

In a lifetime filled with more than a book per day, there have been only a handful whose writing was *so* appalling as to almost physically repel me. This piece of barely-literate junk now heads that pile - the only book for which I've ever demanded a refund!

Yeah, the politics are crude well past the point of idiocy, but that's a minor sin compared to the total absence of any trace of writing ability, plot interest, characterisation... I could go on, but the point should be clear. And I am fine with right-wing, military SF - although as others have noted, this is not even SF. It's - well, it's just tripe, basically.

Baen's recent offerings in this genre have been good to excellent - Ringo, Williamson are closest but also the more established Weber, Drake and so on. This? Is an aberration. Bleagh.

[However, I *do* need to give kudos to the Baen folk for superb handling of the irate note I sent to them. Well done, folks; this book is unworthy of you.]

Thoreau: Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

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Best collection of Thoreau's political writings
Best collection of Thoreau's political writings

Thoreau: Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
Henry David Thoreau
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0521476755

Book Description

Thoreau's political writing is intensely personal and direct. Both his life and work focus uncompromisingly on the question "how should I live?". This edition of Thoreau's political essays includes "Civil Disobedience", selections from Walden, and the anti-slavery addresses. In her introduction, Nancy L. Rosenblum places the essays in the context of Thoreau's life of self-examination, and analyzes the themes of citizenship and resistance that have made Thoreau an enduring influence in political philosophy and practice.

Customer Reviews:

Best collection of Thoreau's political writings.......2001-04-26

I bought three collections of Thoreau's works in addition to this one when I was writing a term paper for my English class. I consider _Political_Writings_ the best one of the four. It contains selections from _Walden_, "Resistance to Civil Government" (better known as "Civil Disobedience"), "Slavery in Massachusetts," "Life without Principle," and a series of speeches in defense of an abolitionist by the name of John Brown. Thoreau's writings are preceded by a well-written and informative introduction that discusses Thoreau's life and political thought.

I consider Thoreau to be one of the best writers of his time. Reading this collection of his works made me question some aspects of my life. It reassured me that society will become more cooperative rather than coercive if individuals such as myself fight for what they believe in.

This edition is excellent - the paper is white, smooth, and well bound. I am planning on buying more books in this series (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Works).

Best collection of Thoreau's political writings.......2001-04-26

Book Description

In writings, speeches, and an interview conducted in the wake of the famous Camp Casey summer in Crawford, Texas, Cindy Sheehan embraces her personal transformation into America's most outspoken advocate for peace. From her trip to the World Social Forum in Venezuela to her ouster from the State of the Union address, Sheehan continues to speak out on topics such as civil disobedience, US foreign policy, New Orleans, military recruitment, her son Casey's death on his fifth day in Iraq, and soldiers who resist.

Customer Reviews:

This is an EXCELLENT BOOK.......2007-01-02

Well, some reviewers who are warmongers obviously have their agendas and their activists who have not read the books they are reviewing. They are part of the Neo-Con conspiracy to keep the American public in the dark about the truth. I am the author of "Land of Childhood's Fears" - a book about the Vietnam War - (just google the title and see) and so I speak with a bit of authority. This book is so heart-wrenching that I had to read it in short sessions. It is a glaring example of the attitude of the current administration - THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT US - THEY NEVER CARED ABOUT ANYTHING BUT THEIR OWN GREED. My Web site has video Documentaries you can download FREE - So before you buy the negative reviews on Cindy Sheehan, learn the TRUTH. Read this book, and my book "Land of Childhood's Fears" which you can also get at Amazon. Take a week to read these two books, and your views about the war in Iraq will drastically change - download the videos from my web site and your entire paradigm structure about the country you live in will change. In the Bible, 2 Peter Chapter 3, it says that in the last days, people are "WILLINGLY IGNORANT". It is a shame that people don't WANT to learn the truth, because what they would have to do to ACT on that truth is unthinkable.

Another poorly written book by Cindy Sheehan.......2006-08-25

As with her other book, this book is another outpouring of grief over her loss. I have read her other book, and found that this one is also poorly written.

For the other reviewers who would like to use the book review option to voice their political opinions, I have a small favor to ask. Would you please stick to reviewing the books?

Dear President Bush.......2006-08-15

I find the rantings of some of the reviewers to be extremely disturbing. For any moral, humane human being could not justify the EVIL, MAD behavior of George Bush, nor could they justify the illegal, immoral Iraq war. If one has any integrity and/or morality than one could naturally see the kindness & intelligence of Cindy Sheehan, who believes in peace & humanity. Not blood for oil like this country's sick President & his blood thirsty administration. If only the entire world was made up of people like Cindy Sheehan, then there would no longer be hatred or violence. For it is our foreign policy that creates anger and violence here and abroad. It is not "our freedom" as our moronic President likes to chant. That is absolutely ridiculous and it is only the uneducated herd that could even fall for such drivel.

Give the woman a break!!!!.......2006-07-21

the woman lost her son in a war that should not be! I am a republican who feels our President is a moronic liar.Whether her issues are from the left does not matter. She lost her son! What's wrong with you people who are critical of her. The truth surely hurts, doesn't it. Why don't you go pick on Ann Coulter.....she is a real class act now, isn't she??? She is an embarrassment to all republicans.

Useful Idiot.......2006-07-07

I bought a copy at the local Goodwill for a quarter, I feel I was ripped off. The book is total lunacy, since Cindy would prefer to live under Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, if her book sales have generated over $423, I would recommend that she move there.

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