This is a section for discussion of interesting and recommended books.

Recently, I began reading a superb book on psychoanalysis. It's by Justin Frank M.D., one of the countries leading psychoanalysists, and it's titled "Bush on the Couch, Inside the Mind of the President". In it, Dr. Frank has assembled a comprehensive psychological profile of Bush. The book isn't partisan, but it acknowledges the importance of knowing our leader. I was very touched by the author dedicating the book to his late parents; "whose social conscience continues to be an inspiration".

The author states his reason for writing the book:
"If one of my patients frequently said one thing and did another, I would want to know why. If I found that he often used words that hid their true meaning and affected a persona that obscured the nature of his actions, I would grow more concerned. If he presented an inflexible worldview characterized by an oversimplified distinction between right and wrong, good and evil, allies and enemies, I would question his ability to grasp reality. And if his actions revealed an unacknowledged -even sadistic- indifference to human suffering, wrapped in pious claims of compassion, I would worry about the safety of the people whose lives he touched.
For the past three years, I have observed with increasing alarm the inconsistencies and denials of such an individual. But he is not one of my patients. He is our president."

On Bush's ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder):
" Impulsive, hair-trigger responses to real and perceived threats are also common for people with ADHD, who often act before determining whether the threat they percieve is in fact genuine."

On Bush's recovery from alcohol abuse:
"...it's hard to ignore the many troubling elements of his character among the traits that the recovery literature associates with the condition, including grandiosity, judgmentalism, intolerance, detachment, denial of responsibility, a tendency toward over-reaction, and an aversion to introspection."

On religion:
"Freud argued that the practice of religion can undermine intellectual and psychological development."
"The impulse to call upon godlike contructs to simplify one's inner world dates back to the primitive fantasies of childhood."

On sadism:
"Long before he led our nation into war, George W. Bush exhibited an appetite for destruction. As a child, Bush inserted firecrackers into the bodies of frogs, lighting the fuses and blowing the creatures up. As president of his fraternity at Yale, he used a branding iron to maim young pledges. As governor of Texas, he was observed smirking over the executions of death-row inmates, many of whom were later found to have recieved inadequate legal protection."


On intelligence:
"Any assessment of Bush's intelligence would also have to note his remarkable lack of curiousity."

Dr. Frank also notes that the subject fits the profile of a meglomaniac. I highly recommend the book as it shows the importance of carefully examining the character of those we elect. It will deepen your appreciation for Psychoanalysis.

Highly recommend McCullough's bio of John Adams.

Here's some books I recommend:

*Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer (sp?). A look at religion, specifically Mormonism, and what happens when faith becomes blindly passionate. Extremely chilling.

*The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Interesting look at the Chicago World's Fair, the historical power plays, the business element, and also a serial killer who used the Fair as his harvest grounds. A true story that seems unbelievable.

And for those who enjoy reading math textbooks, I suggest "The Mathematics of Voting and Elections: A Hands-On Approach," which I think is available online somewhere. Why? Because I was one of the research assistants on said book, have a credit, and even wrote some of the questions.

More recommendations:

• "Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid", by Douglas Hofstaedter. Still a classic on the concept of incomplete systems, recursive systems and undecidability.
• "In Search of Schroedinger's Cat", "Schroedinger's Kittens and the Search for Quantum Reality", and "The Search for Superstrings", all by John Gribbin. While the first is a bit dated (1983), these three are an excellent layman's introduction to the mysteries of Quantum Mechanics.
• "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman", and "What Do You Care What Other People Think", by Richard Feynman. Feynman's autobios. Highly readable, and in many instances thought provoking. A wonderful look at one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century.
• "The New World of Mister Tompkins", by George Gamow. Another lay introduction to advanced physics (both QM and Relativity). Mr. Tompkins, a mild-mannered banker, travels to places where quantum and relativistic effects are the norm, rather than boundary cases.

ScottN, would you say reading these books would make one more or less impressed with the technobabble on the Star Trek shows?

Neither, really. Maybe less impressed.

Gribbin goes more into the "meaning" of it all. Gamow is a nice description in "human" terms of the strangeness. Feynman is his bio, so no help on technobabble there, and Hofstaedter is totally unrelated to that at all.

If you only read *one* of them, read Hofstaedter.

After that, I'd recommend:

Gamow, Feynman, and Gribbin, in that order.

Feynman puts everything into a really nice real-life perspective.

Although it's not really a hard science book, I really enjoyed rereading Cosmos by Carl Sagan recently. I originally bought the book as a child, but I still find it hugely enjoyable. Of course, my criteria was a bit different then. Back then, I was mesmerized by the beautiful illustrations (particularly a painting of a probe entering the clouds of Jupitor). With the passing of Carl, it makes one wonder what he would have made of recent scientific events.

Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World was excellent. I highly recommend it. If you've read Michael Shermer's Why People Believe Weird Things, the book that opened my mind to skepticism and the Scientific Method, Sagan's Demon-Haunted World is the perfect compliment/continuation of it.

Sacred Origins of Profound Things : The Stories Behind the Rites and Rituals of the World's Religions by Charles Panati is a good one about religious traditions, espically American Cathlic ones.

I've read that the whole bit about rituals in the Catholic Church is a big part of the appeal of the Church. I've seen interviews of people who left the Catholic Church for other churches, and who eventually came back to the Church because they missed all the rituals (they said the Unitarians were too informal). During the Pope's funeral service, Bush said even he was impressed with the show the Church puts on (all the pomp and ceremony). On the other hand, many say the rituals are off-putting because they're too rigid.

Sunday, C-Span had a wonderful author on. Zsa Zsa Gershick gave a speech on her book "Secret Service: The Untold Story of Lesbians in the Military". She detailed some of the abuses and harassment lesbians are subjected to while serving. Men constantly try to blackmail them, threatening to dislclose their lesbianisn to superiors if they don't have sex with them. The verbal harassment is constant too. The males joke that gay men should be "beaten up" and lesbians should be "gang-raped".

The "Don't ask- don't tell" policy is pure hell for lesbians. In general, lesbians are superior performance-wise and in intelligence (to judge by their test scores) to the men. Indeed, most lesbians unfairly kicked out have recieved awards for their outstanding performance. Leso-phobic males spread lies about the lesbians, suggesting that they are sexually permiscuous. That's ironic. C-Span followed Gershick's speech with a author who wrote about all the illegitimate children American service men left behind in Vietnam. Mention was made of the vast numbers of prostitutes who service male military members. The sexual pigs are men, not lesbians.

In general, lesbians are superior performance-wise and in intelligence (to judge by their test scores) to the men.

Document this claim.

[SUBJECT CHANGE]

So which is it? The Army is "teh evil" and nobody should serve? Or the Army is "teh evil" for kicking out the gays? Wouldn't that make the gays in the army evil for being part of the evil army? Why would such enlightened people want to even be part of the obviously evil army?

Disclaimer: I fully support the right of gays to serve in the military. Anyone who stands up and volunteers for the military has my respect.

The point Rona's clearly making is that the Armed Services should be staffed entirely with females. As should all three branches of government and all executive positions of major corporations.