Doom and gloom

I just picked up American Theocracy, which judging by most of the press, looks good. Jacob Weisberg at Slate says that's all a bunch of hooey in his aggressively negative review. I do wonder if the low approval ratings of the President are giving any screed the thumbs up from the press. Since I am concerned about the ongoing rise of fundamentalism in American (and global) politics and very concerned about the economic future, I am going to give it a chance. It may get the grad school reading treatment though. To continue my trend of reading conservative critiques of the Administration, I have Sands of Empire, which argues that both parties (dems under Clinton, reps under Bush 43) have been captured by the desire to improve and transfrom the world, at disastrous cost to the country.

If you are in Portland, you might want go to Powell's Burnside on April 7th where Kevin Phillips will be giving a talk. Also at Powell's Burnside, the author of a hiking guide will be showing a slide show of hikes within 2 hours of greater Portland. That's on Monday the 24th of April.