I was curled up in bed last night watching The Daily Show, and Stewart had one of this less-than-attractive female academic author interviews. Just as my brain threatened to tune out, I made it tune back in to hear about One Nation Under Contract: The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy by Alison Stanger.

Sounds brilliant, and I just ordered it from Amazon. I suggest you do the same, and via this link, naturally. Because you want to support this blog, don’t you? Yeah you do. Go ahead, click it…

Why are we losing in Iraq and Afghanistan? Why are independent contractors making more money than our uniformed troops to do the exact same jobs? Who is keeping an eye on all this money?

These are some of the questions Stanger explores. Buy it. Buy it NOW!

Stanger, professor of international politics and economics at Middlebury College, comes to admirably nuanced conclusions in this important assessment of the trend of outsourcing critical tasks in the areas of foreign aid, defense, diplomacy and domestic security. Her analysis finds nothing inherently pernicious in the Bush administration’s outsourcing of Iraqi security and reconstruction; contracting is a necessity given the ascendancy of the private sector as a key player in diplomacy in a globalized world. The executive branch’s error has been to outsource proper oversight and contractor accountability—a laissez-faire approach she finds dangerous. Stanger is also troubled by the Pentagon’s usurpation (and militarizing) of diplomatic and nation-building roles previously under the aegis of the State Department. She argues that the government must recognize that power in the 21st century flows from new sources and complacency at this stage threatens the government with enervation and possible obsolescence. These are vital, well-made and worrying points—readers will hope that the executive branch will heed the author’s call to take the plunge and re-imagine government itself.

Rebecca Bynum writes Allah Is Dead: Why Islam is Not a Religion. Which is what I’ve been saying for years. It’s a cult of sex and death, not unlike Jonestown, and with similar outcomes.

Extrapolated from her New English Review article in 2006, Bynum breaks down the myths of the Religion of Peace™ and explores how the very faith structure of Islam is utter bullshit.

From the product description:

Many analysts have worked on the problem of Islam’s political aspects, but few have tackled Islam philosophically as a whole. Rebecca Bynum does that. She discusses Islam and its status in the modern world with a depth and precision missing in many modern accounts and sadly concludes that the great hope of secularizing the Muslim world is a pipe dream. It is much more likely, according to Bynum, that the secular world will be Islamized. Overall, however, her analysis is hopeful and provides an important ideological tool for dealing with Islam which is to reconsider its classification. Bynum maintains Islam s current status as a religion, along with all the other religions of the world, is in error. She refers to Islam as the duck-billed platypus of belief systems and proposes it should be classified accordingly; as the hybrid religio-socio-political belief system it is. She also reminds the Western world about what religion itself actually is, not the caricature modern analysts often mean when they refer to “religious fundamentalisms.” Bynum has given policy-makers a powerful tool for dealing with Islam. Let us hope they understand, and grasp, and choose to make use of it.

Pre-order yours today. And remember, anything bought via my Amazon links puts a bit of cash into the kitty that pays this site’s hosting and buys dogfood for my infidel dogs.

In my never-ending quest for the perfect eating disorder, I picked up Portia de Rossi’s memoir, Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain.

I love memoirs. Not plain old boring ones, but juicy, introspective, gossipy or tragic ones. Unbearable Lightness is pretty much all of that mixed in for a low-calorie meal and an hour on the treadmill.

I remember seeing the images of de Rossi when she was at her lowest weight, and this particular image really struck a nerve with me, looking so much like the unhealthy childhood friend I was raised with. To give you some kind of idea of how small my friend T was, my mother died of lung cancer weighing 43 lbs - we used T as the dress fitter for the outfit my mom would be buried in.

As a girl who struggled with weight all her life, I found de Rossi’s book fascinating. No matter how little she weighed, she always felt there was another inch to lose. The part that really spoke to me, however, is where she doesn’t believe she could be anorexic, because she doesn’t have the coveted willpower of anorexics. I’ve had those thoughts, myself. I’m not strong enough to be anorexic. Yet for her, it was something that snowballed until it consumed and nearly killed her, and she collapsed on a movie set here in Toronto.

I found this book so riveting - so very, very well written - that even when my coveted Decision Points came out last week, I was totally unable to put Unbearable Lightness down. It’s not a glossy Hollywood memoir chock full of glamor shots. In fact, the only images in the book are used to jar the reader (and likely the writer) and create a sense of urgency. Eat or die.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone that ever had an unhealthy relationship with food, that’s ever obsessed over a calorie, that’s ever cried watching The Biggest Loser, or who’s ever spent an extra 10 minutes on that treadmill.

Caveat: The book reads like an honest-to-goodness how-to of living and managing an eating disorder. Don’t hand this book off to your teenage daughter without really sitting down and talking with her about the harrowing effects that starvation can have on the body. Seriously, Unbearable Lightness is like an instruction manual, and shouldn’t be given to the impressionable without giving them some kind of emotional support during and after the reading. It would be all too easy to adapt the Portia de Rossi diet to the life of a 15 or 16 year old girl, what with all the tips and tricks on how to hide the lifestyle.

That said, I consider this one of the all-time best books I have read, and plan to read it again. Order yours through Amazon.com and save 50% off the cover price. Canadian residents use this Amazon link.

George Bush’s book, Decision Points, comes out today. I already have my copy reserved at the bookstore across from the office, and I’ll pick it up at lunch. I may then develop a severe stomach upset that sends me home for the rest of the day. You never know. I can’t wait to read it! I’ve been like a kid on Christmas Eve since the book was announced back in march!

In all reality, Decision Points should have been called Miss me Yet?, but that might have been a bit too obvious. Especially since he’s trying to remain a gentleman and not criticize Obama. I guess Bush had enough of that bullshit from Carter. In his interview last night with Matt Lauer, he said “The President has enough people criticizing him, I’m not going to be one of them.” Classy.

Unlike the Annointed One himself, who still blames Bush for every hangnail and rainy day, even two years into his Reign of Error.

If you haven’t already, order your copy of Decision Points through Amazon and save almost 50% off the cover price.

Every purchase you make through Amazon.com and Amazon.ca via this website helps me pay the bills. Thank you for your patronage!

I’ve been stuck in bed for the past three days, nursing a cold with bottles of green NyQuil and red wine. What doesn’t kill you will probably make you sleep for three days while having vivid dreams about lobsters, mining towns and Korean refugees. But I digress… In between epic naps, I’ve been reading.

What feels like chick-lit is actually the memoirs of Jen Lancaster: Former high-flying, six-figure-earning sales wunderkind, who lost her corporate job in the chaotic post-9/11 days and had to come to grips with being unemployed, broke and “overqualified.”

While I’ve never made six figures, I can pretty much identify with how expensive life in the big city can be (hers Chicago, mine Toronto), and how every job you apply for - from secretary to barista - is way beneath your skill set.

Lancaster used her unemployed time to gain 50 pounds and start a blog. Also, she’s an Ann Coulter-loving Republican. Obviously, I can identify with her! Jennsylvania was the blog she began and still maintains, and here’s the funny thing: I used to read this blog regularly, but was into my second dose of NyQuil before I put two and two together. No wonder I was getting such a great laugh out of the books!

Of her memoir series, I’ve read the first two: Bitter is the New Black : Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass,Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office, which got my attention because, while I’ve never owned a Prada bag, I’ve worn pearls in a homeless shelter; and Bright Lights, Big Ass: A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl’s Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me?. She reported her neighbor to homeland security. Seriously. I mean, after all, “If you see something, say something,” right?

Heading out tomorrow to pick up the third in the series, Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist’s Quest to Discover If Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie Is Not the Answer.

You can follow Jen on Twitter @altgeldshrugged.

Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin: Writers Running Wild in the Twenties by Marion Meade. This is a hilarious and sometimes sad look at the popular female writers of the famed Algonquin Round Table. Dorothy Parker (pictured), Edna St. Vincent Millay (known as Vincent), Edna Ferber and Zelda Fitzgerald - wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Drinking bootleg gin during prohibition, these uninhibited women worked and played hard for their money and fame. What amuses me about the book is the way women were perceived - even by each other - back then. Zelda Fitzgerald, in reference to Dorothy Parker: “Dottie was one of those older professional women, no doubt pushing twenty-five, who continued to wear old-fashioned long hair and Merry Widow hats.” Twenty-five??!

If you are looking for a fascinating glimpse inside the prohibition era and the elite creative force of the Gonk, this book is for you. Suicide attempts, abortions, mad affairs and adultery, crazy mothers, drunk fathers and forgotten children - it has everything.

I’m about halfway through and I can honestly say that this book requires a very dry gin martini to complete the experience.

Over the weekend I was given a copy of Shootin’ the Sh*t with Kevin Smith: The Best of the SModcast, with the inscription “Where’s my shirt??” If you’re a fan of SModcast, you’ll know that joke. I was lying in bed last night, trying not to laugh too loud while I read it. Love it!

You were going to pre-order this for me, right?

All pre-orders for President George W. Bush’s forthcoming autobiography made via this website will help keep this site up and running. Thanks!

My friend and I sat sipping coffee in Yorkville, chatting about life and my upcoming birthday. I was a little distracted by the pile of work I knew I had waiting for me at home, including the barely-touched review copy of Salim Mansur’s forthcoming book, Islam’s Predicament.

While my friend and I chatted, somewhere halfway across town, Salim - in on a day trip from London, ON - was sitting stuck in traffic. He was thinking that if he wasn’t running so late for his meeting, he would call me.

Wouldn’t you know it that just as my friend and I were about to leave the café, Salim walked right past us?

“I was going to call you!” we cried in unison.

Confirming my cell number before rushing off, he promised to call me in 90 minutes. True to his word, within a hundred minutes we were strolling happily through Queen’s Park, playing Count the Hippies at the Toronto Word on the Street book fair.

We spent the afternoon talking of everything from politics to Jazz and all subjects between.

Salim’s book, Islam’s Predicament: Perspectives of a Dissident Muslim (Mosaic Press), will be released within the next month, and Salim will be joining Mike and I on Brass Balls Radio in two weeks time.

Interesting read in WaPo about a new author who was given less than zero support from her publishing house when it came to marketing. So she did her own, and has sold over 300,000 copies. Huzzah! Yay for grassroots!

A couple of my friends have used print to order services like LuLu and done pretty good - mostly from ebook sales. The idea being, of course, that people are more willing to take a chance and a previously unknown author if they don’t have to pay tons of overhead or shipping just to read them.

Putting together, marketing and selling an ebook or a print on demand book can be tough, because you’re the only employee in the publishing house. You don’t have PR professionals at your disposal, there’s no agent to fall back on for advice - you’re totally on your own.

Peter Bowerman wrote The Well Fed Writer and marketed it on his own. He made a fortune. I have a copy, and if you aren’t hoping for failure, you should too.

That said, he also has a book called The Well-Fed Self-Publisher which chronicles how he made a living selling The Well Fed Writer. He offers a free report to whet your appetite, if self-publishing is something you’ve been considering.

I bought The Well Fed Self Publisher in ebook format. Again, for the same reason I mentioned above - no extra costs, just the book. Yes it takes a while to get used to reading on the computer, but it’s worth it for the money you save, trust me.

Anyway, check out The Well-Fed Self-Publisher . If you’ve been thinking about it, stop putting it off and DO SOMETHING about it!!

John Hawkins at Right Wing News talks to Michelle Malkin about her book Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies.

You know in D.C. after the election, there was all this cocktail chatter talk and idle musing about what the Republican Party needed to do to recapture power. The simpletons think it’s all just about rebranding themselves, joining the Obama bandwagon, and remaking the Republican Party into the Democrat Party. The difference is that the Republican Party does not have this machinery in place: the unions on their side, the public schools, all of these non-profit organizations — then taxpayers subsidize political outfits like ACORN to help guarantee them a majority in perpetuity.

Check put the whole interview at Right Wing News, and be sure to grab a copy of Michelle’s best selling book, Culture of Corruption.

For the 4th week in a row, Michelle Malkin’s Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies is #1 on the NYT bestseller list.

Her collection of facts detailing the abuses of power by people who are now senior in the Obama administration - think TurboTax Tim Geithner, the “czars” that answer to no one except President Obama, the ACORN and Bill Ayers connections… the list is endless.

Culture of Corruption - the derogatory slogan the Democrats tried desperately to attach to the Bush administration - is the perfect way to sum up the nepotism, arrogance and flagrant disregard for the law evidenced by the behavior and practices of the Hope’n'Change administration

I strongly recommend reading the book - I made the mistake of listening to the Audible version. It’s terrible. The narrator is approximately 300 years old. It should have been Michelle herself.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Culture of Corruption at Amazon. They have the best prices: a little over $15 for a hardcover.

If you’re a fan of Malkin, you can also get her blog on your Kindle reader.

Currently reading Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom by Bruce Bawer.

I happened to borrow this copy from The Great Scaramouche, and she has it marked up on every page with her observations. It’s awesome. It’s like having an annotated version.

This will keep me occupied, along with the audio version of Glenn Beck’s Common Sense, on my 12-hour bus ride to NYC tonight. By the way, Bawer is coming to Canada in September!

I probably won’t blog over the weekend (you never know), so follow the madness on Twitter with

• @rightgirl
• @chipheadmike (Brass Balls Radio producer)
• @pinkelephantpun (Tabitha Hale, who will be tweeting the pictures from our adventure)

Have a great weekend!

Ugh. I took a walk in the nice warm sunshine this afternoon. Had some letters to mail, and wanted a passion tea lemonade from Starbucks. I decided that instead of hitting one of the standalone ‘bucks, I’d go to the one in my local Indigo Books. Or Obama Books, as it should be rechristened (methinks “christened” might not be the best word to use, but oh well).

I counted no less than NINE books with either his face or his name on them. And not one of them was in the political section upstairs. The most ironic one was probably “Great Speeches” that had Alfred E. Mulatto’s face on the cover. Not Churchill (we shall fight them on the beaches), not Kennedy (ask not what your country can do for you), not Lincoln (government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth), but Barack put-em-to-sleep Obama. He may be many things: Historical, well dressed, something else I’m sure, but he is not a great orator. Bush you could listen to for the mistakes; like watching F1 for the crashes. Reagan was a passionate speaker. Clinton was emotive and kept the crowd’s attention. But Obama? Most people prefer to read the text of his speeches rather than actually listen to them. I harbor a guess that if he had them read aloud by William Shatner, his Neilsen Ratings would go up considerably.

I shrugged off this amusement and wandered to the business section. I figured I’d be Obama-free down there, since he never really had anything to do with business throughout his “career” as an Official Black Man™ and Community Organizer™. Alas, it was not to be:

Good Lord, is there hope (not to be confused with Hope™) left for America (and Canada, by extension)? Americans are graduating in illiterate droves, unable to string two sentences together that don’t involve the words “like” or “bling”. Now we want them to bore the ass off potential bosses, subordinates, investors and board of directors? Is that really a good idea?

For those of you who have been lining under a rock for the last seven years or so, you may only know Ezra Levant for his kerfuffle with Canada’s “human rights” apparatus, after his now-defunct magazine the Western Standard printed the cartoons of Mohamed. His struggle - and the struggles of others in Canada whose speech and “tone” have been deemed offensive - has been outlined in Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights. I had reviewed this book back in March and called it “bone-chilling”. Mike and I also had Ezra on Brass Balls Radio.

But there’s more to Ezra Levant than just being gang-raped by a band of quasi-judicial thugs. Did you know he has two other books?

Fight Kyoto, published in 2002, discusses the negative effect the enviro-hooey Kyoto Accord would have on Canadian industry and the public at large.

And The War on Fun details how health lobbies (modern-day prohibitionists) are cracking down on vices that the public enjoys. Drinking. Smoking. Eating. It’s timely, considering the current discussion in the U.S. about sugary drinks and the evil Cheerios. That’s right. We have Big Oil, Big Tobacco, and now Big Breakfast. I think (but am not sure) that The War On Fun is out of print, but the link above will take you to Amazon where you can buy it used (and dirt cheap). Now might be a good time for Americans to read this, while drinking a contraband Coke and eating Chinese take-out.

Speaking of out-of-print, I just snagged myself a copy of Kathy Shaidle’s earlier book, A Catholic Alphabet. She has made this available in e-book form via Lulu. The collected articles are a lot like Kathy: Short, quirky, full of pop-culture trivia, and with hidden depths.

…OR…

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Mark Steyn Human Rights Show Trial!

Mark Steyn’s latest offering is Lights Out: Islam, free speech and the twilight of the west. The first section of the book is the offending Maclean’s articles that Mohamed El Masry and the Sock Puppet Three found “flagrantly Islamophobic“. These articles are presented in all their hateful glory, along with a point-by-point of why the thin-skinned law students were so offended, and a rebuttal from the Islamophobe himself.

Beyond that are further articles collected from Steyn’s various outlets that further prove what a hater he is, but that the Sock Puppet Three just didn’t have the time between prayers to scour for his calls to genocide. Or whatever it was they were yelping about at taxpayer expense for a year. Ho hum.

I was pleased to see the book included one of my all-time favorite Steyn articles: My Sharia Amour (not “flagrantly Islamophobic”).

There was a momentary silence, just long enough for me to start backing upstage nervously. And then the crowd went wild! The guys in the balcony cheered deliriously and hurled their machetes across the orchestra pit, shredding my pants. An Afghan wedding party grabbed their semi-automatics and blew out the chandeliers, sending them hurtling to the aisle, where they killed a Japanese camera crew. Tough luck, fellers, but that’s what happens when you get between me and my audience.

Lights Out is a hefty little book; a hardcover of 322 pages. But each article takes no more than a couple of minutes to devour, and you’ll miss the book when it’s finished.

Order it from the Steyn Store or from Amazon.com.

Lights Out, Mark’s new book about Islam and the West, arrived from Steyn HQ yesterday. A review will be forthcoming. In the meantime, Steyn fans can order direct from the Steyn Store.

I think I’ll go to bed early again tonight, and spend more quality time with Mark.

And coffee.

Daily or weekly prayers and devotions? All the religions do that. Guilt and repentance? Ditto. All the major (and some of the minor) religions preach peace and love (though not all really follow it).

Only Christianity gives us crisp, salty fried pig fat for breakfast, and for that alone I am thankful to be a Christian.

Ok, I’m half kidding. Yesterday I once again finished reading one of my all time favorite books:

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal

I read it every year during Lent. It always makes me smile, by humanizing Christ in a way that the language of the Bible doesn’t allow for. Where the Bible is cold, hard recitation of the facts, Lamb is fiction, but you want to believe it.

Have a blessed Easter everyone.

Sounds like a party, doesn’t it? Shakedown in the USA! Wear your clogs!

Thing is, the little book by this outspoken Canadian seems to be a bit of a Yankee Doodle Hit. Leastwise according to my Amazon statistics.

So if you haven’t ordered it yet, here’s your chance to a) get an awesome book about the damage done by good intentions, and b) help this site by purchasing it via my affiliate links.

What are you waiting for?

You are sitting in your office, going about the business of your business, when someone presents themselves at reception, saying they’ve come to confiscate your hard drive, your hard files and any peripheral e-storage devices. They have no warrant to back them up, and they don’t need one. They are from the government. They are valiantly fighting for the cause of human rights. You do not have the right to turn them away, and you must give them all they request.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have read Shakedown on a windy, rainy night. Maybe then I wouldn’t have written Ezra with a short email review: Bone-chilling.

While not necessarily the horror of Stephen King, Shakedown is a series of Orwellian tales perhaps worthy of the Twilight Zone. In Canada, Section 8 of our Charter (what passes for a constitution in this country) protects the proletariat from illegal search and seizure. Except when it doesn’t. Like, where the “human rights” commissions are involved.

Operating completely outside the law of the land, these “human rights” commissions and tribunals across the country have no set operating procedure. Every case is different, civil law and the Magna Carta have no bearing, and rules are made up as they go along. In addition, though they portend to be a wall of defense between hatred and the population, their employees and cronies are some of the largest purveyors of hate in the country.

If, for example, you and I were to write about niggers and kikes in an effort to foment hatred and possibly violence, the aforementioned Gestapo of the “human rights” rackets would invade our personal files and steal our computer equipment. Yet if one of their employees - past or present - did the same thing under a pseudonym, it would all be in the cause of fighting hatred.

Tell me, dear readers - especially those outside of Canada - does what I’ve written make you feel like you’ve fallen through the looking glass? Me too. The Queen of Hearts (in this case, Jennifer Lynch) passes judgment on intention and tone, branding people from all walks of life to be outside civilized society. Well, almost all walks. Like, for example, you can’t really be charged if you are a lesbian, or a Muslim. After all, you are one of your precious protected people. You are free to make spurious claims - at no cost to yourselves - against small business owners, private citizens and anyone who you may feel has slighted you. In turn, they must pay and pay throughout the process of being found guilty (for no one is ever found not guilty - ever), and then pay again upon being found guilty.

In Shakedown, Ezra Levant tells us these tales of horror, in his usual witty and bombastic manner, as well as telling us of his own infamous dealings with the Alberta “Human Rights” Commission for daring to report on a news story that Muslims found offensive.

Money quote: You can always ignore a racist. You can’t escape from the government.

Ezra has waged an almost three year battle to denormalize the “human rights” apparatus in Canada and to expose their unconstitutional practices to the sunlight of public opinion. Shakedown is his story, along with the stories of many other less connected Canadians who have suffered at the hands of the Court of Marsupial Magistrates.

Is this a book just for Canadians? No. Any country that subscribes to a politically-correct orthodoxy at the expense of common sense (I’m looking at you, Britain) is at risk of having quasi-judicial bodies break the law of the land in an effort to protect people from being offended.

Shakedown by Ezra Levant is available as of Tuesday, March 24th in Chapters/Indigo branches across Canada, and worldwide via Amazon. You can pre-order it through Amazon today.

UPDATE: D’uh. I thought it was a little odd that the book would be launched on a Tuesday, and I was right. It in fact launches today, Monday the 23rd of March. I actually saw it in Indigo last night after dinner.