Is it socialism you want?
Recent polls indicating that most Americans believe wealth distribution is unfair are biased to the left. There is already too much distribution of wealth for welfare, entitlements, and over-reaching government programs.
The Occupy Wall Street bunch thinks that they want socialism over capitalism. They don't realize that Socialism would include them in creating a giant underclass under the guns of authoritarian government.
Daniel B. Jeffs, Apple Valley
Original letter:
Occupy movement wants equal distribution of poverty for all
Recent polls indicating most Americans believe wealth distribution is unfair are biased to the left. There is already too much distribution of wealth for welfare, entitlements, and over-reaching government programs.
The Occupy Wall Street bunch think they want Socialism over Capitalism. However, most are simply too ignorant or indoctrinated to realize that Socialism would include them in creating a giant underclass under the guns of authoritarian government.
There is nothing more insidious and unfair than the confiscation of wealth, equal distribution of poverty for all, and freedom lost.
New York Post
October 25, 2011
Biden teaching 4th-graders
Biden campaigning for the president’s jobs bill in front of 4th-graders is an invitation to expose the liberal indoctrination of students from elementary school to college.
It’s simply a crime against the fiber of America. Indeed, the Occupy Wall Street movement is a direct result of the 1960’s cultural revolution, the takeover of the education and political establishment and the unbridled growth of government.
Free-market capitalism is the only thing keeping our country from social, political and economic extinction.
Dan Jeffs
Apple Valley, Calif.
(Original letter)
VP Joe Biden indoctrinating 4th-graders
VP Joe Biden campaigning for President's jobs bill to 4th-graders should be an invitation to expose the liberal indoctrination of students, from elementary schools to college -- by the NEA, teacher unions, tenured professors, and the Department of Education -- at great taxpayer and property owner expense -- while graduating functionally illiterate students and robbing them of a core academic education.
It's simply a crime against the fiber of America.
Indeed, the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement is a direct result of the socialist '60s cultural revolution, the takeover of the education and political establishment, and the unbridled growth of government. Free market Capitalism is the only thing keeping our unique constitutional republic from social, political and economic extinction.
San Bernardino Sun
October 15, 2011
Freedom taken
There were certainly no mature adults among the first Occupy Wall Street protestors simply because they were predominately functionally illiterate, indoctrinated disgruntled students taught by liberal academia to practice name-calling anti-American mobaucracy to intimidate their perceived enemy: free market Capitalism.
Of course, the spread of protests across the country was prompted by known liberal activist organizations such as Move On and others, to help focus blame for the failing economy on Wall Street, banks and the wealthy -- later joined by the usual suspects, unions, teachers, Hollywood creatures, and 60s and '70 revolutionaries.
And, of course, there has been no mention of the actual cause of the economic meltdown in the liberal media's credibility coverage of the hapless street mobs: Government's reckless intimidation of banks and mortgage lenders to give home loans to unqualified buyers for the sake of affordable housing.
[Indeed, blame for the giant housing bubble that burst -- causing the housing and economic collapse -- should be directed where it primarily belongs: Former President Jimmy Carter's CRA, Former President Bill Clinton -- along with Former HUD Director, Andrew Cuomo, and Former Attorney General, Janet Reno -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; Former Fannie Mae CEO, Franklin Raines; Rep. Barney Frank, and Senators Chris Dodd and Chuck Schumer.] (edited for space)
Alas, elected representatives' selling protection for their elections and re-elections is as old as politics in America -- as are free-market Capitalists paying for the protection to remain in business. It's simply big, gangster government by any definition -- with hard working taxpayers and consumers paying the ultimate price for government malfeasance: Freedom
Unfortunately, under the guise of saving the economy, gangster government was elevated to a disturbing and unworkable level by the Democrat Congress and the Obama administration. Now, it's worse, and the outlook is grim -- unless the 2010 Republican win in the House is repeated in the Senate and White House in the 2012 elections.
Lest we forget, the First Amendment protects the people's right to free speech, and to peaceably assemble, and to petition government for redress of grievances -- as the tea party movement does. There is no right to mob the streets to interfere with businesses and other people's freedom of movement.
That is illegal everywhere in America.
Daniel B. Jeffs
Apple Valley
WRONG: Why Experts Keep Failing Us and How to Know When Not to Trust Them
Author: David H. Freedman
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
June 2010
Overview:
Our investments are devastated, obesity is epidemic, test scores are in decline, blue-chip companies circle the drain, and popular medications turn out to be ineffective and even dangerous. What happened? Didn't we listen to the scientists, economists and other experts who promised us that if we followed their advice all would be well?
Actually, those experts are a big reason we're in this mess. And, according to acclaimed business and science writer David H. Freedman, such expert counsel usually turns out to be wrong--often wildly so. Wrong reveals the dangerously distorted ways experts come up with their advice, and why the most heavily flawed conclusions end up getting the most attention-all the more so in the online era. But there's hope: Wrong spells out the means by which every individual and organization can do a better job of unearthing the crucial bits of right within a vast avalanche of misleading pronouncements.
Our investments are devastated, obesity is epidemic, test scores are in decline, blue-chip companies circle the drain, and popular medications turn out to be ineffective and even dangerous. What happened? Didn't we listen to the scientists, economists and other experts who promised us that if we followed their advice all would be well?
Actually, those experts are a big reason we're in this mess. And, according to acclaimed business and science writer David H. Freedman, such expert counsel usually turns out to be wrong--often wildly so. Wrong reveals the dangerously distorted ways experts come up with their advice, and why the most heavily flawed conclusions end up getting the most attention-all the more so in the online era. But there's hope: Wrong spells out the means by which every individual and organization can do a better job of unearthing the crucial bits of right within a vast avalanche of misleading pronouncements.
Meet The Author
David H. Freedman (freedman.com) is a contributing editor at Inc. Magazine. His articles on science, business and technology have appeared in The Atlantic, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Science, Wired, and many other publications. His previous book (coauthored) is A Perfect Mess, about the useful role of disorder in daily life, business and science. He is also the author of books about the U.S. Marines, computer crime, and artificial intelligence. Freedman casts a critical eye on headline health news at his blog, Making Sense of Medicine.
Freedman is currently the online editor of The Washington Examiner
Table Of Contents
Introduction 3
1 Some Expert Observations 14
2 The Trouble with Scientists, Part 1 37
3 The Certainty Principle 68
4 The Idiocy of Crowds 87
5 The Trouble with Scientists, Part 2 104
6 Experts and Organizations 125
7 Experts and the Media 146
8 The Internet and the Technology of Expertise 168
9 Eleven Simple Never-Fail Rules for Not Being Misled By Experts 203
Appendix 1: A Tiny Sampling of Expert Wrongness, Conflict, and Confusion 231
Appendix 2: The Evolution of Expertise 239
Appendix 3: A Brief Sampling of Contemporary, High-Powered, Apparent Scientific Fraud 255
Appendix 4: Is This Book Wrong? 258
Acknowledgments 269
Source Notes 271
Index 285
The Law Is a Class
Law schools wield more social influence than any other part of the American university. To what effect?
(A review of Walter Olson's book, "Schools for Misrule")
The British economist John Maynard Keynes famously observed, 75 years ago, that statesmen who think that they are pursuing policies of their own devise are really showing themselves to be "the slaves of some defunct economist." In America today statesmen are more likely to be the slaves of some defunct legal theorist. Our litigation-prone culture and complex legal structure—not least the matrix of overlapping state and federal powers—regularly translate questions of policy into questions of law. As a result, American law schools wield more social influence than any other part of the American university.
In "Schools for Misrule," Walter Olson offers a fine dissection of these strangely powerful institutions. One of his themes is that law professors serve the interests of the legal profession above all else; they seek to enlarge the scope of the law, creating more work for lawyers even as the changes themselves impose more costs on society. By keeping legal rules in a state of endless churning, lawyers undermine a stable rule of law and make legal outcomes less predictable; the result is more litigation and, not incidentally, more billable hours for lawyers, who must now be consulted about the most routine matters of business practice and social life.
Mr. Olson reminds us that the mere presence of law schools on college campuses was deeply controversial at the turn of the last century. Thorstein Veblen said that law schools belonged in the academy no more than schools of dancing or fencing, because their practical, vocational training detracted from the enterprise of intellectual discovery. Thus if law teachers wanted to become members of the professoriate, they had to do more than merely impart the content of legal doctrine. They had to find arguments implicit in academic trends and critique the law's very architecture. To meet the need for intellectual respectability, Mr. Olson implies, professors became engineers of reform.
Mr. Olson shows that the reforms that had the most baleful effects were those that coincided with the expansionist interests of lawyers. Legal theorists dismissed, for instance, concerns that a wider use of "equitable relief"—a doctrine that judges properly employed to enforce school desegregation—would dissolve the difference between politics and judging. But the concerns we were well placed: Courts ended up playing an important role in managing schools, prisons and welfare agencies. Law professors also helped to develop the class action into an extortionate threat: Companies now pay out million-dollar settlements rather than bet their very existence on a single trial that might well impose massive liability.
Mr. Olson superbly describes the rise of legal clinics, the law-school component ostensibly designed to give students hands-on training. He notes that the charitable foundations that first funded these clinics were more concerned with creating turbines of social change than with educating students. These days, many more clinics engage in public-interest litigation (defined by a rather predictable liberal agenda) than devote themselves to matters like the legal ordeals of small businesses, though thinking about a deli's contract dispute with a supplier would be more relevant to a law student's future working life. Some of these public-interest litigation shops have substantial funds. Mr. Olson observes that the budget of Brennan Center at New York University alone comes to roughly 80% of that of the Federalist Society, the national organization of legal conservatives that is routinely vilified by Democratic politicians for its inordinate—and, of course, pernicious—effect on our legal culture.
While Mr. Olson offers an excellent description of where law schools have been, he is less effective at showing where they are going. He makes much of causes that have captured the interests of law professors—reparations for African-Americans, the return of lost lands to Indian tribes, theories that charge American law with pervasive racism (so-called Critical Race Theory)—but these are by now outlier campaigns. Today a large part of legal scholarship taps into the ever increasing capacity of computers for precise measurement and quantification. Indeed, the fastest-growing annual conference of law professors is the one that takes up legal empiricism, a field in which scholars measure the effects of laws in the real world (e.g., how certain laws may lead doctors to practice defensive medicine). The other vibrant field is law and economics, where scholars often compare the advantages of the market to other forms of social ordering.
Mr. Olson rightly complains of legal scholars who seem to have enormous enthusiasm for international norms. Domestically, they would use them to constrict democratic decisions, claiming, for instance, that life imprisonment for juveniles without parole violates universal human rights. But even in this area of scholarship a growing band of heretics contest the catechism—arguing, say, that the threat of being prosecuted at the International Criminal Court will make it less likely that dictators will give up power.
To be sure, intellectual life in the legal academy would be more vibrant if law schools were less lopsidedly left-liberal—if, that is, they encouraged more internal debate. Tenure also permits aging 1960s and 1970s ideologues to enjoy positions of academic power. But it is not aging scholars who generally advance the ideas that Keynes's statesmen will take to heart; it is the younger ones. The British Enlightenment ideas that shaped America's legal structure rested on the proposition that markets are central to prosperity and that government actions can be judged by real-world effects. What is novel about law schools today is that, compared with their checkered past, so many more scholars are vigorously returning to the methods that made America.
Mr. McGinnis is a professor at the Northwestern University School of Law.
The Washington Examiner
May 31, 2011
Boomers spawned an American culture of extremes
Re: "Baby boomers fueling boom in knee, hip surgeries," May 23
It's no surprise that the United States is "becoming a nation of bum knees, worn-out hips and sore shoulders." Physical fitness is one of the many extremes spawned by the boomer generation in creating a selfish, superficial society -- with shame in short supply.
This spoiled generation rejected their parents, the meaning of freedom in America, and formed an anti-establishment counterculture that launched the drug culture, extreme feminism and reverse racism. The "Me Generation" took over education, embraced socialism, and expanded government, political correctness and extreme environmentalism -- before embracing extreme boom-and-bust capitalism.
When these activists, demonstrators, demonizers and finger-pointers run out of gas searching for someone to blame for all the dishonesty, abuse of power, greed, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll -- all they need do is corner the market on mirrors.
Dan Jeffs
Apple Valley, Calif.
San Bernardino Sun
May 30, 2011
Culture of extremes
The boomer generation fact that 'We're becoming a nation of bum knees, worn-out hips and sore shoulders' comes as no surprise. (Re: "Boomers fueling boom in knee, hip surgeries," May 23)
Indeed, the extremes in physical fitness and resistance to aging is the least of extremes spawned by the boomer generation, which created a superficial society of social aggression, political tyranny, selfish interests and economic stress -- with shame in short supply.
Unfortunately, the spoiled generation rejected their parents, the meaning of freedom in America, and formed an anti-establishment counter culture that launched the drug culture, extreme feminism, reverse racism -- took over education, embraced socialism -- expanded government, political correctness and extreme environmentalism -- then embraced extreme boom and bust capitalism, and turned that into their shallow, instant gratification 'me generation.'
Alas, when the boomer generation of activists, demonstrators, demonizers and finger-pointers -- who said they would change the world -- run out of gas searching for who to blame for all the dishonesty, abuse of power, greed, sex, drugs and rock-n-roll -- all they need do is corner the market on mirrors and take a long look at the usual suspects who changed the world, ruined it for their parents, their children and all the generations to come.
Daniel B. Jeffs
Apple Valley, Calif.
Press Dispatch
VIctor Valley Daily Press
Desert Dispatch
May 29, 2011
More than a holiday
Memorial Day is more than a weekend holiday celebration, which has become too far removed from honoring our military Americans who gave their lives in defense of our country. Surely we can do more to give thanks, honor and remember the patriots and defenders of freedom. More than going somewhere to party, picnic, visit friends or relatives -- or to just get away -- with the meaning of Memorial Day lost in the action.
Though I did not serve in the military, many in my family did, and I lost an Uncle in WWII. I did, however, serve in law enforcement and the criminal justice system for 41 years, which is the first line of defense throughout our country. Indeed, law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every day to protect and serve their fellow citizens. Many have given their lives on duty -- some while serving in the military -- and they should also be honored and remembered.
America is the world's premier land of the free and home of the brave because of our patriots from 1776, our Constitution, and all our patriots who have supported and defended our liberty to this memorable day and beyond.
Daniel B. Jeffs
Apple Valley, Calif.
THE FLIPSIDE OF FEMINISM:
What Conservative Women Know -- and Men Can't Say
By Suzanne Venker & Phyllis Schlafly
Pub. Date: March 2011
Publisher: WND Books, Incorporated
Synopsis
Forty years have passed since the so-called women's movement claimed to liberate women from preconceived notions of what it means to be female - and the results are in. The latest statistics show that as women have gained more freedom, more education, and more power, they have become less happy. In The Flipside of Feminism, Suzanne Venker and Phyllis Schlafly provide readers with a new view of women in America - casting off the ideology that preaches faux empowerment and liberation from men and marriage. Their book demonstrates that conservative women are, in fact, the most liberated women in America and the folks to whom young people should be turning for advice. Their confident and rational approach to the battle of the sexes is precisely what America needs.
OVERVIEW
What if everything you’ve been told about women in America is wrong? What if what your college professors taught you – along with television, movies, books, magazine articles, and even news reports – have all been lies or distortions?
Since the 1960s, American feminists have set themselves up as the arbiters of all things female. Their policies have dominated the social and political landscape. The “spin sisters” in the media (aptly named by Myrna Blyth in her book of the same name) and their cohorts in academia are committed feminists. Consequently, everything Americans know -- or think they know -- about marriage, kids, sex, education, politics, gender roles, and work/family balance, has been filtered through a left-wing lens.
But what if conservative women are in the best position to empower American women?
Forty years have passed since the so-called women’s movement claimed to liberate women from preconceived notions of what it means to be female – and the results are in. The latest statistics from the National Bureau of Economic Research show that “as women have gained more freedom, more education, and more power, they have become less happy.”
Enough, say Suzanne Venker and Phyllis Schlafly. It’s time to liberate America from feminism’s dead-end road. Cast off the ideology that preaches faux empowerment and liberation from men and marriage. While modern women enjoy unprecedented freedom and opportunities, Venker and Schlafly argue that this progress is not the result of feminism.
Women’s progress has been a natural evolution – due in large part to men’s contributions. American men are not a patriarchal bunch, as feminists claim. They have, in fact, aided women’s progress. And like women, they have been just as harmed by the feminist movement.
In The Flipside of Feminism, Venker and Schlafly provide readers with a new view of women in America -- one that runs counter to what Americans have been besieged with for decades. Their book demonstrates that conservative women are, in fact, the most liberated women in America and the folks to whom young people should be turning for advice. Their confident and rational approach to the battle of the sexes is precisely what America needs.
The Washington Examiner
January 20, 2011
Quality entertainment is hard to find
Re: "Gervais stands his ground over Globes performance," Jan. 18
British comic/writer/actor Ricky Gervais' sharp-edged hosting of the Golden Globe Awards was a refreshing series of stabs at the shallow, self-congratulatory entertainment industry and its narcissistic players. He deserves praise, not condemnation, for his courage to say what most of the public is thinking.
With few exceptions, films have been reduced to unbelievable scripts of tripe, ugly plots, extreme violence, crude special effects, unrecognizable remakes, and incoherent story lines, with either a complete lack of imagination and original thought or drowned in political correctness. Independent films used to be unique, thought-provoking, informative and genuinely entertaining. Now their lack of redeeming value cast a toxic cloud over the film industry.
Television is even worse, with its unreal reality shows, stupid sitcoms, hollow dramas and trivial talk shows. Fortunately cable has managed to come up with a few riveting exceptions, even some with educational purpose.
Is it any wonder that our culture is turning into a superficial society of selfish interests, over-reaching government, failed public education, social aggression, political rancor and vile extremes?
Daniel B. Jeffs
Apple Valley, Calif.
The Washington Examiner
January 2, 2011
Goodbye to decade of domain, decline and decay
After the first decade of the 21st century, America suffers from the triple "D's" -- the decline of freedom, eminent domain, and social-economic decay. All things considered, it appears that we are in for a not-so-happy new year.
The 20 percent of our population responsible for the triple "D's" are the statist-driven, liberal/progressive/socialists who control and dominate politics, government, education and the media.
But they are being put on notice that this is not a 20 percent democracy. It is a constitutional republic in the process of restoration.
As Americans have done time and time again, the spontaneous Tea Party movement is awakening to revive American's unique history of freedom and self-reliance.
Daniel B. Jeffs
Apple Valley, Calif.
http://www.sbsun.com/pointofview/ci_16894638
San Bernardino Sun
Perspectives Section B1 - Is it time for sacrifice?
December 19, 2010
Why give more? I've given plenty
When asked what I would be willing to sacrifice, give up, or do without to help resolve the climbing deficit and looming national debt, I was stunned.
I thought, sacrifice what, when I am among most Americans being sacrificed by confiscatory government, which will take it?
What can I give up when I'm on a fixed retirement income, which could be threatened? What can I give up when the equity in my home vanished with the housing collapse, and I have little or no discretionary spending to give because of the economy, recession, and the increasing cost of living? What can I give up, when my health care insurance is going up, my taxes are going up, and the cost of energy is likely to skyrocket?
What can I give up when the nation is steeped in uncertainty, individual responsibility is at an all time low, and government irresponsibility is at an all time high? What can I give up when government's affordable housing crusade caused the housing crash, the economy to collapse, and plunged taxpayers into enormous debt? And What can I give up when I'm living in California, where our government and voters blindly exacerbate the problem with even more irresponsibility?
Considering what has happened to our country since the 9/11 attack on America in 2001, and what transpired long before that, I am deeply concerned by how government growth has systemically accrued so much intrusive power over our society and our daily lives -- with regressive ideology, tyrannical agencies, unreasonable laws, and destructive regulations attacking a struggling free market.
Let's face it. Even with the threat of terrorism and fighting wars to defeat it, we are living under the influence of a superficial society of selfish interests, social aggression, and extremes. Our education system has been reduced to costly factories of indoctrination and warehouses of ignorance.
And we are being consumed by runaway government. The good news is, there is a spontaneous awakening going in America that will overcome the worst because there is the fire of freedom burning inside us.
What I am willing to give is my time, energy and efforts to do what I can to help rescue our state and our country. And to restore our Constitution, our representative democracy, our republic, and the power of the people to limit government to only what we need for our security, liberty, freedom and the pursuit of happiness.
Along the way, I will continue to give what I can to worthy charities and the homeless.
Daniel B. Jeffs, founder
The Direct Democracy Center
Time Magazine
November 27, 2010
Re: Time frames: What really happened?
Cover story
Frankly, I'm disappointed, but not surprised, by Time's slanted view of the first decade of 2000. What really happened to America since the turn of the century began much earlier in the 20th Century.
Our history, misinterpreted and distorted by the left, hardly defines or describes what really happened. Simply put, the progressive, liberal, socialist, left -- or whatever the next name for the insidious ideology becomes -- undermined our history, our Constitution, our education, our society, our government and our freedom.
Fortunately, there have been brief periods in time when there was an awakening to what America really means, such as the Reagan era and the short-lived Ross Perot false prophet betrayal. Now, there is an awakening born out of economic failure and over-reaching government that may very well turn into a time of reckoning for the soul of our nation. That's what is really happening (California not included).
The Washington Examiner
November 18, 2010
George Soros wants a legalocracy
Re: "Soros uses billions to undermine democracy," Nov. 14
If financier George Soros had his way, America would be ruled by the liberal legal establishment, not the rule of law. Soros is making every effort to undermine democracy by having the states appoint all judges rather than having them elected to their positions, and/or confirmed or rejected by voters.
Indeed, in addition to influencing public and political media with his millions, the Hungarian-American anti-American billionaire power monger is doing everything he can to undermine our constitutional democratic republic by every insidious way possible.
Unfortunately for freedom and most Americans, the legal establishment has far too much power already without any help from Soros. The federal judiciary has usurped power from the states and become a Star Chamber legalocracy, which is more damaging to our country and society than anything else.
Daniel B. Jeffs
Apple Valley, Calif.
(Original letter sent)
George Soros wants a legalocracy
If financier George Soros had his way, America would be ruled by the liberal legal establishment, not the rule of law. Soros is making every effort to undermine democracy by having the states appoint all judges rather than having them elected to their positions, and/or confirmed or rejected by voters.
Indeed, in addition to influencing public and political media with his millions, the Hungarian-American/anti-American billionaire power-monger is doing everything he can to undermine our constitutional democratic republic by every insidious way possible.
Unfortunately for freedom and most Americans, the legal establishment has far too much power already, without any help from Soros. The federal judiciary has usurped power from the states. It's become a Star Chamber legalocracy, which is damaging our country and society as much or more than anything else.
Lest we forget, the powerful selfish interests of trial lawyers, legal professionals and the courts have so complicated and over-involved our laws, rules and regulations, contracts, torts and class-action lawsuits -- they are responsible for much of the high cost of living, and loss of liberty.
The shame of good deeds is they are not appreciated for generations. The tragedy of bad deeds is they are not resisted until it's too late.
Anatomy of an Epidemic:
In this astonishing and startling book, award-winning science and history writer Robert Whitaker investigates a medical mystery: Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States tripled over the past two decades? Every day, 1,100 adults and children are added to the government disability rolls because they have become newly disabled by mental illness, with this epidemic spreading most rapidly among our nation’s children. What is going on?
Anatomy of an Epidemic challenges readers to think through that question themselves. First, Whitaker investigates what is known today about the biological causes of mental disorders. Do psychiatric medications fix “chemical imbalances” in the brain, or do they, in fact, create them? Researchers spent decades studying that question, and by the late 1980s, they had their answer. Readers will be startled—and dismayed—to discover what was reported in the scientific journals.
Then comes the scientific query at the heart of this book: During the past fifty years, when investigators looked at how psychiatric drugs affected long-term outcomes, what did they find? Did they discover that the drugs help people stay well? Function better? Enjoy good physical health? Or did they find that these medications, for some paradoxical reason, increase the likelihood that people will become chronically ill, less able to function well, more prone to physical illness?
This is the first book to look at the merits of psychiatric medications through the prism of long-term results. Are long-term recovery rates higher for medicated or unmedicated schizophrenia patients? Does taking an antidepressant decrease or increase the risk that a depressed person will become disabled by the disorder? Do bipolar patients fare better today than they did forty years ago, or much worse? When the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) studied the long-term outcomes of children with ADHD, did they determine that stimulants provide any benefit?
By the end of this review of the outcomes literature, readers are certain to have a haunting question of their own: Why have the results from these long-term studies—all of which point to the same startling conclusion—been kept from the public?
In this compelling history, Whitaker also tells the personal stories of children and adults swept up in this epidemic. Finally, he reports on innovative programs of psychiatric care in Europe and the United States that are producing good long-term outcomes. Our nation has been hit by an epidemic of disabling mental illness, and yet, as Anatomy of an Epidemic reveals, the medical blueprints for curbing that epidemic have already been drawn up.
Biography
ROBERT WHITAKER is the author of Mad in America, The Mapmaker’s Wife, and On the Laps of Gods, all of which won recognition as “notable books” of the year. His newspaper and magazine articles on the mentally ill and the pharmaceutical industry have garnered several national awards, including a George Polk Award for medical writing and a National Association of Science Writers Award for best magazine article. A series he cowrote for the Boston Globe on the abuse of mental patients in research settings was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998.
Author: Larry Schweikart
Publisher: Penguin Group
June 2010
Synopsis:
The bestselling author of A Patriot's History of the United States examines some of the pivotal—yet mostly ignored—moments that shaped our history.
Every schoolchild is taught the great turning points in American history, such as Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy assassination, and 9/11. But other, equally significant events have altered our destiny without being understood—or even widely noticed.
Acclaimed conservative historian Larry Schweikart now takes an in-depth look at seven such episodes and reveals the profound ways they have shaped America. He also asks readers to reconsider them not just in terms of what happened, but in light of the Founding Fathers' vision for our nation. What would Washington, Jefferson, or Madison have said about these events?
In the same reader-friendly style of his previous bestsellers, A Patriot's History of the United States and 48 Liberal Lies About American History, Professor Schweikart doesn't merely recount our history—he forces us to rethink what makes our country great. He shows how individual liberty, private enterprise, and small government helped build a free and prosperous nation. Conversely, whenever these values have been threatened by big government, oppressive taxes, and special interests, we lose sight of the principles that made us strong.
You'll be surprised to learn how these events spurred sweeping changes that still affect us today. For instance:
Biography:
Larry Schweikart is the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller A Patriot's History of the United States and the author of 48 Liberal Lies About American History. A professor of history at the University of Dayton, he has appeared as a guest commentator on Fox News and has written many academic books and articles on national defense, business, and financial history. He lives outside of Dayton, Ohio.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/letters/From-readers-95793474.html
The Washington Examiner
June 8, 2010
Insulting former president in White House was rude Re: "Dim Bulb," June 4
It was profoundly ignorant and condescending for former Beatle Paul McCartney to say that former President George W. Bush does not know what a library is.
Bush has a B.A. from Yale, an MBA from Harvard and is married to a former librarian with a master's degree in library science. Bush may not be well spoken, but he is honest, forthright, well educated and well read.
It was arrogant and rude of McCartney to insult the presidency in the White House, whether or not the current president agreed. Mr. McCartney is clearly very talented at making music, but he is certainly no intellectual giant himself.
Daniel B. Jeffs
Apple Valley, Calif.
Take back America and restore the Constitution
By Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC
October 13, 2009
Government meddlers and dependency peddlers don't miss a beat, even in the
worst of times, when it comes to pushing their power agenda of health care
and energy takeovers on the American people, like it or not... while
relaxing our national security. What ever happened to the original law and
meaning of our Constitution?
Indeed, over the past century, social, political and legal power brokers
have circumvented, manipulated and compromised our federal state
constitutions and our freedoms, expanded the power of government executive,
legislative and judicial branches far beyond the intent of limited
government -- with hundreds of thousands of laws, rules, regulations and
court decisions -- establishing the tyrannies of minority selfish interests
over the best interests of the majority of our people with layers upon
layers bureaucratic walls, gates barriers and chains.
Simply put, the hearts have been carved out of our social, economic,
political, legal and moral centers by self-corrupting intrusive, invasive
and repressive government -- which is growing a dependant society of
insidious opportunists, and morally regressive predators and parasites --
bound to the service of the ruling elite.
Certainly, it is time for the collective judgment of the people to wise-up,
free ourselves, and turn it all around with common sense and a real and
unique democratic republic, the way it was intended by our founders. The
American way of limited government, freedom, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness....
AMERICA'S BEST FRIEND ENEMIES LIST
By Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC
October 8, 2009
The political elite believe that they know best and that they are the
people's best friends, looking out for their best interests. The list below
includes most of our best friends list:
Big government and the two-party system; Liberal news media; Big union
organizations; Corporate alliances with government; The AARP; The ACLU;
Trial lawyers associations; The National Education Association (NEA) and the
public education monopoly; ACORN; Socialists; Activist judges; Extreme
environmentalists; extreme conservationists; the entertainment industry;
George Soros, and people like Arianna Huffington, Michael Moore and Bill
Maher.
Indeed, with friends like this we don't need any enemies to reduce us
to a giant underclass ruled by the liberal, socialist elite.
To: USA TODAY - The Forum
Re: In defense of Glenn Beck
By Jonah Goldberg
In defense of Glenn Beck
By Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC
October 6, 2009
Jonah Goldberg's capable and interesting defense of Glenn Beck should have
included Bill Maher in the anti-Beck backlash from the left. Indeed, the
left crowd that let's Michael Moore and Janeane Garofalo speak for them,
goes even further by encouraging Maher to turn loose his vicious personal
attacks against Beck, such as his vile comment on Joy Behar's new show
saying, "Beck's a bimbo and he's a crazy one. I'm telling you - it is not
that long before we're going to find Glenn Beck dressed as a woman or
playing with his feces or something." Behar laughed in response said she
hoped he would melt down on air, adding "that would be so much fun to
watch."
On second thought, maybe leaving Maher out was a slap on his wrist.
Certainly, Bill Maher is the chief elitist and condescending purveyor of
ridicule, hate and contempt for conservatives, people of faith, and the
"stupid" American people who lack the intelligence to make decisions. And
surely, Bill Maher is convinced he is a mental giant, "The Decider" and the
leader of the liberal gang on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, where he
throws around foul language in front of his guest sheep and audience. Alas,
that kind of audacity is a portrait of the ugly American who hates patriots
and his country.
Antics aside, for many of us, Glenn Beck is refreshingly honest and a
fountain of common sense and useful information most of us need to defend
ourselves against big government's march of socialism, economic collapse and
being disenfranchised from democracy.