The structure and reproduction of members of the Rhodymeniaceae (University of California publications in botany)

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American School for Murder

Michael - An American citizen living in Canada

Inspirational, Educational, and Interesting

timeless & timely

Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of Americas
James Hodge , and Linda Cooper
Manufacturer: Orbis Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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General | Ministry & Church Leadership | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1570754349

Book Description

Disturbing the Peace tells the story of a controversial Cajun priest, a former gung-ho Navy officer injured in a bomb blast in Vietnam, who has tirelessly championed human rights and aroused the conscience of a nation. The fast-paced historical biography also profiles the movement he founded to close a notorious U.S. Army school whose graduates have committed atrocities across Latin America.

The journey of this "spiritual hobo" has more twists and turns than the Mississippi River: from love affairs that ended in heartbreak to patriotic impulses that ended in disillusionment. From dreams of wealth to missionary work among the poor. From protests and prison terms to a cloistered monastery. From confrontations with church hierarchy to political battles on Capitol Hill.

Bourgeois' opposition to militarism began after a blind Vietnamese orphan opened his eyes to the realities of war. Since then, his human rights work has taken him to half a dozen war-torn countries: To Bolivia, where U.S.-backed security forces kidnapped him after he spoke out against torture. To El Salvador, where he disappeared and two of his friends were killed by U.S.-trained death squads. To Nicaragua and Honduras, where the CIA was helping contra commandos overthrow a government. To Colombia, where he witnessed the human toll of the drug war, escorted by an Army general linked to terrorist bombings. To Iraq, where he met with desperately poor Iraqis just before the country became a bloodbath.

The assassinations of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador in 1989 spurred Bourgeois to investigate the U.S. Army's School of the Americas, then a little known training installation whose graduates were later linked not only to the Jesuit massacre, but to gross human rights abuses throughout Latin America.

The latter half of the book profiles the movement he founded to close the school; the Congressional battles over its funding; the Pentagon's forced admission that the school used manuals advocating torture and assassination; and the courage of average Americans - including WWII and Vietnam veterans, students, union workers, professionals, clergy and elderly nuns - who have risked imprisonment each year at the annual November demonstration at Fort Benning, Ga., where the school is located.

In documenting the sordid record of the school's graduates - from dictators and intelligence agents to death squad leaders and torturers, Disturbing the Peace shines a light on the dark side of U.S. foreign policy - not only in Latin America, but in Iraq, where Bush administration policies on torture led to the disgrace of Abu Ghraib.

While the Pentagon closed and then re-opened the school under a new name -- the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, the SOA Watch movement has remained one of the strongest voices of dissent since Sept.11, 2001, winning court battles that have helped safeguard First Amendment rights at a time civil liberties are eroding.

Time and again throughout the struggle, Bourgeois, along with his fellow provocateurs for justice, lend credence to Margaret Mead's belief "that a small group of committed citizens can change the world."

Customer Reviews:

American School for Murder.......2005-03-08

Disturbing the Peace is a compelling story of a cleric who has dedicated his life to waging what some might call a quixotic battle against the highest military and political forces of the United States. These same forces look away from the evil they have wrought in other lands, specifically Latin America, and in American-run jails in Iraq.
These evils, thanks to the machinations of the School of the Americas, include torture, murder, rape, and pillage. The school, costing Americans millions of dollars to maintain at Ft. Benning, Ga., is at the center of Bourgeois' relentless crusade. Bourgeois, who as a young man of the Louisiana bayoulands had beauteous Cajun mademoiselles at his beck and call and almost married one, chose the priesthood after heroic service and a Purple Heart in Vietnam. Following discharge, Bourgeois was appalled at America's foreign policy, which fawned upon megalomaniacal foreign dictators and which gave rise to the founding of the School of the Americas.
This is no Bush-bashing book. Presidents of recent years have all contributed to the shameful institution that teaches young foreign soldiers how to commit the most nefarious crimes, then sends them back home to put into practice what they have been taught on American soil by American teachers.
Item: Dismembering a 55-year-old woman with a chainsaw.
Item: Torturing a priest before throwing him out of a high-flying helicopter.
Item: Killing an archbishop, priests, and nuns in cold blood.
Bourgeois and his followers have served time in jail and have had their lives threatened over their never-ending crusade to close down this inhumane cancer of the American military. Irony aside, the subject of this insightful, provocative biography is a modern Thomas Paine in clerical garb, indefatigably fighting for justice everywhere and against tranny in his own country.

Michael - An American citizen living in Canada.......2005-02-11

The one thing that stands out the most about this book for me is that this priest was only standing for truth, freedom and justice. Yet the one country that he fought for during the Vietnam War prosecuted him for these beliefs. So much suffering in the world today is simply based on greed. One country trying to profit by controlling the government and natural resources of a smaller, weaker country.That is really what it is all about and the truth is there as long as we do not turn a blind eye as we did on Father Roy Bourgeois. Too many people today simply do as they are told and believe what they hear. You should read this book because the greatest threat facing the world is not knowing or ignoring the truth and sadly the world will continue to suffer at the hands of a few powerful people if we do not open our eyes.

Inspirational, Educational, and Interesting.......2004-11-15

This book inspires and educates while still being a page-turner. Roy Bourgeois is a purple heart Vietnam veteran who became a Maryknoll missionary priest. He has been in and out of Latin American countries and in and out of prison as he fights for social justice. In his struggle he discovers the now infamous School of the Americas - Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, GA. This school has trained the hemisphere's worst human rights violators. This book skillfully weaves Fr. Roy's story with that of the School of the Americas leaving the reader uplifted by the courage of a man and a movement and appalled by the secret teaching of torture and anti-democracratic use of force. Great read!

timeless & timely.......2004-11-01

This brutal and sincere account of one man's journey down the paths of realization and revelation concerning the School of the America's is directly relevant and instantly accessible. It's grandest triumph is in it's ability to trump it's journalistic dictation with a strongly personable and poetic narrative that will have the reader making the same journey as it's engagingly active / reflective subject Roy Bourgeois--- whether taking action or contemplating inaction, Roy Bourgeois is a troublemaking saint and a hero for our times. Not overly symbolic or mouthpiece myth-making, this is a book that should be read and, most of all, understood.

Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas.(Book Review): An article from: Catholic New Times

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Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas.(Book Review): An article from: Catholic New Times

Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Catholic New Times, published by Thomson Gale on December 18, 2005. The length of the article is 422 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas.(Book Review)
Publication: Catholic New Times (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 18, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 29 Issue: 20 Page: 14(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Disturbing the Peace: the Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas.(Book review): An article from: International Journal on World Peace

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Disturbing the Peace: the Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas.(Book review): An article from: International Journal on World Peace
Tisa M. Anders
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from International Journal on World Peace, published by Thomson Gale on December 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1100 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Disturbing the Peace: the Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas.(Book review)
Author: Tisa M. Anders
Publication: International Journal on World Peace (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 23 Issue: 4 Page: 91(3)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Roy Bourgeois' mission to close SOA.(Book Review): An article from: National Catholic Reporter

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Roy Bourgeois' mission to close SOA.(Book Review): An article from: National Catholic Reporter
Chris White
Manufacturer: National Catholic Reporter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from National Catholic Reporter, published by National Catholic Reporter on February 11, 2005. The length of the article is 766 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Roy Bourgeois' mission to close SOA.(Book Review)
Author: Chris White
Publication: National Catholic Reporter (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 11, 2005
Publisher: National Catholic Reporter
Volume: 41 Issue: 15 Page: 8a(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

This gripping tale of seventeenth-century England's most wanted man is set against the background of the civil wars in England and Ireland.

Customer Reviews:

Biography on an Outlaw Who Stole the Crown Jewels of England.......2007-03-19

The nonfiction biography "Colonel Blood: The Man Who Stole the Crown Jewels" by David C. Hanrahan had its good and bad moments. It wasn't among the best biographies I have ever read, but it did have shining moments that made me want to read about the lives of other people mentioned in the book.

To start, "Colonel Blood" is about Thomas Blood, a seventeenth century veteran of the English Civil War who became an outlaw - and then, impossibly, became a favorite of King Charles II after Blood tried to steal from the king himself.

The idea of reading the real-life story of the man who stole the English Crown Jewels from the Tower of London was what obviously attracted me to reading this book. I figured it had to be a fascinating story. Unfortunately, the writing itself was not what I expected.

The writing is dry, for the most part. Many people are mentioned and are hard to keep track of. There is not much in terms of detail about the everyday lives of people living in seventeenth century Britain. There wasn't even that much detail about the Civil War.

However, there were a couple chapters that fascinated me, mostly because the people themselves were so fascinating. Chapter 9 on George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, was an interesting portrait of a man of questionable morals, personally and politically. Chapter 12 on Charles II, the Merry Monarch, was also fascinating in its portrayal of a very self-indulgent man with dozens of mistresses, to his Queen's horror. The poor Queen was childless and had to suffer the humiliating presence of the King's mistresses and illegitimate children. I felt so bad for her.

I'm not sure if this is the only biography on Colonel Blood. For me, it was hard to read (though I read it quickly) because it couldn't keep my attention. Too many people, names, incidences, etc. filled its pages without the author fleshing out their identities and stories more clearly. Honestly, I would have liked more. I would have also liked to have found Colonel Blood as interesting as some of the minor characters in the story, but it was not meant to be.

Book Description

What makes a winner - in business or in sport? Why do some people consistently break sales targets, cross the line first or hammer the ball in the net with pinpoint accuracy? Natural talent and disciplined training are vital. But with two equally matched professionals, something else makes the difference that provides that extra, champion factor: the mind.

Mind Games looks into the mental processes of sporting stars, identifying the attitudes and approaches that enable them to achieve peak performance, every time, and applies them specifically to the world of business. What are the key mental characteristics that make some people come out on top? How do winners channel adrenalin into controlled power while losers choke? What do sportsmen and women mean when they talk about 'the inner game', being 'in the zone' or being 'in the now'? What is it that coaches do to realise the potential they see? What are the lessons that business winners need to learn from sport's superstars?

Mind Games has the full involvement of over 30 sporting household names, including Sven-Göran Eriksson, Matthew Pinsent, Clive Woodward, Nick Faldo, Jonny Wilkinson. The authors draw on extensive first-hand experiences of acknowledged sporting champions across a range of sports, identifying personal techniques proven to have worked under the pressure of top-level competition. They also draw on the expertise of professional coaches and psychologists who have worked with sportsmen and women.

Download Description

"What makes a winner - in business or in sport? Why do some people consistently break sales targets, cross the line first or hammer the ball in the net with pinpoint accuracy? Natural talent and disciplined training are vital. But with two equally matched professionals, something else makes the difference that provides that extra, champion factor: the mind.
Mind Games looks into the mental processes of sporting stars, identifying the attitudes and approaches that enable them to achieve peak performance, every time, and applies them specifically to the world of business. What are the key mental characteristics that make some people come out on top? How do winners channel adrenalin into controlled power while losers choke? What do sportsmen and women mean when they talk about 'the inner game', being 'in the zone' or being 'in the now'? What is it that coaches do to realise the potential they see? What are the lessons that business winners need to learn from sport's superstars?
Mind Games has the full involvement of over 30 sporting household names, including Sven-Göran Eriksson, Matthew Pinsent, Clive Woodward, Nick Faldo, Jonny Wilkinson. The authors draw on extensive first-hand experiences of acknowledged sporting champions across a range of sports, identifying personal techniques proven to have worked under the pressure of top-level competition. They also draw on the expertise of professional coaches and psychologists who have worked with sportsmen and women. "

Customer Reviews:

Disappointing Sports Wisdom.......2005-08-17

After a fast start, the book fails to deliver the promised tidbits of sports wisdom and inspiration. As an American, it concentrates far too much on British sports and individual sports to hold the interest of kids who compete on US team sports such as hockey and baseball. Wholely unsatisfying.

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The Official U.S. Mint 50 State Quarters: Complete 100 Hole

Good for casual collectors to have.

Looks great, works so-so

Excellent Coin Folder

I HATE this thing!

The Official U.S. Mint 50 State Quarters: Complete 100 Hole Collector's Folder, Complete Collection 1999-2008

Manufacturer: Whitman Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Coins & Medals | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0794807135

Customer Reviews:

The Official U.S. Mint 50 State Quarters: Complete 100 Hole.......2007-09-28

I was disappointed in this product. The cover lillustration is nice but the book itself was a quite thin and flimsy cardboard. In addition, our son has trouble getting the quarters into the holes. After putting only about half of the quarters in, the book looks battered and worn. I would suggest looking for something better made.

Good for casual collectors to have........2007-06-08

I collected coins for awhile in high school but fell out of the habit. Getting one of these complete collection booklets is an easy way for the casual coin collecter to have an easy formal way to collect the State Quarters....

Looks great, works so-so.......2007-03-10

I just purchased three different 50 State Quarters books to try as the quarters fall out of the one I have. The other reviewers who weren't happy with this item are spot on. This is the worst of the three.

It looks great and has a lot of useful information about each state and the order of release. But the holes are too small though I didn't need a hammer to push the quarters in. It's clear given the tight holes and the force needed to get the quarters in that it would only be a matter of time before I ripped through the paper thin cover.

This is personal taste, but I don't like that the P and D are in totally separate groups rather than having both coins for each state together.

Excellent Coin Folder.......2006-11-13

My son really enjoys looking at his state quarters in this folder. I do need to help him put in the quarters, but that is no problem. Once the quarters go in, it doesn't fall out.

I HATE this thing!.......2006-06-10

This album is extremely attractive and informative and has storage space for a complete set of 100 quarters (both P and D mint marks for each state). Unfortunately, it's a nightmare to use.

You'd think the U.S. mint would know what size their own coins are and be able to make an album they would actually fit in, wouldn't you? Well, guess again! It's just about bloody impossible to get quarters all the way into these slots so that they're firmly lodged and don't fall right back out again. I have only found two ways to accomplish this: 1) pound on the coins with a heavy object (obviously a disaster for preserving either them OR the album in good condition) or 2) painstakingly shave away a little bit of the cardboard around the edge of each slot (extremely tedious and time-consuming, as well as very hard to do without puncturing the flimsily thin backing material).

I am now in the process of shopping for an album that doesn't require me to risk damaging my quarters in order to get them into it. When I get one, this thing will go straight into the recycling bin. I couldn't bring myself to inflict it on some other unsuspecting person.

P.S. No offense to Burton W. Ostrower, but I think he MUST have been reviewing a different album. Mine does not have a "top plastic cover," and the coins are NOT viewable from both sides as he said. (I wish!) I would report the inaccuracy to Amazon if I knew how, because I hate to see people be misled. But the report form only allows reporting of "inappropriate" material, and there's no place to write comments there.

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The Practical Organic Gardener
Brenda Little
Manufacturer: Silverleaf Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

ASIN: 1933317469

Book Description

This practical and informative guide for anyone wanting to learn all there is to know about organic methods for growing food includes step-by-step instructions for caring for your organic garden, as well as illustrations, charts, and tables on topics such as watering techniques, proper root depth for vegetables, and tips for mulching with a non-mulching mower. This comprehensive, lively, and detailed text holds the answer to virtually every question the budding organic gardener might have.

Book Description

The struggle for intimacy is a complex issue, key to the happiness of every man and woman. It goes on for all of us as long as we live. To be intimate is to be close, to be vulnerable, qualities that are very different from the survival skills we learned. This book will help clarify the issues for you. You can learn to: Identify family myths to make you wonder whether having a healthy, intimate relationship is possible. Know the questions to ask to find out whether you and your partner have a long-term future together. Be aware of misunderstandings that can sabotage your relationship. Express your feelings and fears so as to avoid misunderstandings. Find our what to do when your relationship is not working. Create good relationships. Acquiring intimacy skills can be difficult, but through understanding and effort, they can be learned. This insightful book is a good place to begin.

Customer Reviews:

Educate yourself.......2006-11-04

This book helped me to understand my problems with intimacy. It made me aware of the stumbling blocks in the way. Couseling and good books to read on the subject have been so helpful. It will take time and discernment to deal with my distrust, but I want to get well and this book helped me make a plan.

Understanding Myself.......2005-10-03

Do not hesitate to read this book...it has changed my life. This book has rated a solid #1; the best self-help book I have ever read. The reason for how I act and react are exact. This book touched every area of my life from my childhood to adulthood. My experience with alcohol? Alcohol has affected every area of my life: alcoholic parent; drunk driver killed my mother, divorced an alcoholic after 30 years; now raising a child of an alcoholic parent. I am reading this book to my child now; my question to her.."is this helping you"..her response "that is exactly how I feel"..my response..."we can't change the past, but we change the future".

This fills in the gaps other ACoA books leave........2005-04-14

I have read a good deal on ACoAs, being one myself and having stuggled with the issues inherent in that. All the books make the general statement that "ACoAs have problems in intimate relationships," but none of them went into the whys and wherefores. This book fixes that. It is an easy read and cuts to the chase without going in to a lot of theory, so if you want to get to the heart of the matter, this is the book.

Handbook to AC behavior and solutions.......2004-12-04

I just finished reading the book "The Intimacy Struggle". I found this book to be a concise handbook to AC behavior and -- perhaps more usefully -- to approaches for couples to take in dealing with those behaviors. Because it's written for BOTH parties in the relationship, it's a good way for an non-AC (or less dysfunctional person) to learn how and why an AC person thinks and acts the way they do. When both parties have this knowledge, together they can use the approaches described in the book to work towards a healthy successful relationship.

It's a short book, just over 100 pages, so it's a fast read. It has a "handbook" quality to it, with AC behavior described in a sentence, followed by further description of the behavior and suggested ways to deal with it.

My story: as soon as I finished it, I handed it to the woman I've been seeing and she's reading it, and we are talking about our pasts and our current behaviors, and have already used the knowledge to avoid situations that could have hurt our relationship. What could be a better testimonial than that? Thank you, Janet !

Wonderful!.......2002-01-31

I found myself within the pages of this book! That is no exaggeration. Recently, I have noticed destructive patterns emerging within my failed relationships and searched for the reason behind this. Literally, until yesterday (I read the book last night), I had no idea what was causing my actions and the resulting actions from my former partners. Previously, I had minimized the long-term affects of my childhood experiences. Now, I see how this experience has touched almost every aspect of who I am. Identification of the problem is the first step to recovery. As an ACOA, I feel validated and on the path to recovery. God Bless Janet Woititz and my fellow ACOAs. Do not wait...start the healing process now!

Book Description

This evocative picture of a lost London and a vanished culture is also the story of a bookish boy discovering his own path. John Gross, the former editor of the Times Literary Supplement, is the son of a Jewish doctor who practiced in the East End of London from the 1920s to World War II and beyond. Remarkably readable and entertaining. --Antonia Fraser. A very beautiful and valuable book. -- Oliver Sacks

Customer Reviews:

A Double Thread.......2003-01-17

I really enjoyed this book, especially the last chapter, in which Gross tells about his reading. Like Gross, I love books about books. Like Gross, I read a lot of comic books in my youth (mainly Wonder Woman) and, later, mysteries (all of Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie and many more). Like Gross, I thought there would always be time later to read the classics, and also like him, I tend to pick up whatever catches my eye at the library. Now I'm 63, and although I've read much of the great stuff, there's still much to be read. My tastes don't run to T. S. Eliot and Gross's moderns but backward to the nineteenth-century English novelists and beyond.

Gross has a pleasant, low-key style and, it seemed to me, a realistic take on childhood and its memories.

Reflections on a Unique Youth.......2002-04-13

In at least one sense, the title is misleading: What Gross has accomplished in this volume is to weave an enormous, vividly colorful, and immensely intricate tapestry with almost infinite "threads" or themes. They include "the story of [his] two separate entwined legacies of being English and being Jewish" during 1935-52 as well as the Battle of Britain when he and his mother were relocated from London to Sussex to avoid the Blitz, the gradual awareness of the Holocaust, and eventually the establishment of the State of Israel.

For me, one of Gross's most powerful qualities is his modesty (almost self-deprecation) as his memoir proceeds through such volatile times. For example, on the matter of anti-Semitism, he observes that "to have had a religious upbringing at least assures that in your own mind you are a Jew first, and the object of other people's dislike second." Young Gross seems to have been spared the ordeal of what other Jews his age experienced during the Third Reich. With regard to his own faith, "for many Jews, whatever the larger historical balance sheet, anti-Semitism is the heart of the matter, the only significant reason why they still feel Jewish." I was also deeply moved by his portrayal of his father, Avraham ben Oser, who became a doctor. The adult Gross very closely resembles that wise and generous man. It is not so much that father and son tolerate anti-Semitism; rather, that they absorb it and thereby deprive it of any legitimacy.

Frequently as I read this book, I wondered what their conversations would have discussed had young Andras Grof emigrated to London rather than to New York and become friends with young Gross. (Grof changed his name to Grove and later served as CEO of Intel Corporation. I highly recommend his own memoir, Swimming Across.) The balance of Gross's engaging and eloquent autobiography reveals his thoughts and feelings about the Cold War years during which Stalin executed so many Jewish artists and writers. He also comments insightfully on T.S. Eliot ("who may be a great poet but he isn't greater than the Jewish people") and W.H. Auden whose social values are more compatible with Gross's own. There is great sensitivity in this book but almost no sentimentalism. Were a higher rating available, I would gratefully give it to this unique and compelling personal narrative.

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