Landmark - The Inside Story of America's New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All

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Book Review: Landmark - The inside story of America's new health care law and what it means for us all

Landmark is a collection of essays written by various reporters, editors and national staff of 'Washington Post' followed by the actual text of the bill. It provides a comprehensible summary of the legislation and examines its impacts on Americans on various categories and on health care system as a whole. In addition to this, it gives a very rich historical background and perspective. Such as how the legislation came together, the events and negotiations, the political challenges and obstacles, etc etc

The book has a systematic structure and is divided into three sections. The first section provides behind the scene reporting about the way the law came up. The second section highlights the effects and impacts of the new law whereas the third section is a summary of the legislation.

For a lot of people, the presence of the historical background makes it a worthwhile read as it also covers a lot about the national healthcare coverage. People also find it a worthwhile read because it gives a proper and detailed coverage as compared to the fragmented and sensational media coverage.

Although the bill seems to be corrupted in a few places, the authors still manage to convince you that the law will change the way doctors make business and also mark a change in the patients experiences.

This book will increase your knowledge on the issues related to this bill and your ability to discuss and debate on the issue will also be enhanced. This book provides a very balanced perspective and should be read by all.

Landmark is a well written analysis of the new health care reform bill, all of the contributors clarify specific areas of the bill, recommended.

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Review - Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

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Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, Bill McKibben, 2010, ISBN 9780805090567

Mankind has irreparably changed the Earth's climate and weather conditions. This book gives the details, and tells how to survive on this new world.

The Earth that mankind knew, and grew up on, is gone. A new planet needs a new name; hence Eaarth. It is a place of poles where the ice caps are severely reduced, or gone. It is a place where the oceans are becoming more acid, because of excess carbon absorbed into the water, not to mention the toxic chemicals and other pollutants being dumped into it. It is a place of more extreme weather patterns.

The average person might not care if an entire glacier completely melts away, like the Chacaltaya Glacier in Bolivia. Those living downstream, dependent on that glacier for their water supply, will certainly care. Since 1980, the tropics have expanded worldwide by 2 degrees north and south. Over 8 million more square miles of land are now tropical, with dry subtropics pushing ahead of them. The chances of Lake Mead, which is behind Hoover Dam, running dry in the next 10 years, have reached 50 percent. The residents of an oceanside town in North Carolina are spending up to $30,000 each to place large sandbags in front of their homes to keep the ocean at bay.

The times when America, or the world, can simply grow its way out of its financial problems are gone forever. Building enough nuclear power plants to get rid of even a tenth of the climate change problem will cost at least $8 trillion. According to one estimate, America needs to spend over $200 billion a year for decades, just on infrastructure, to avoid the kind of gridlock that will collapse the economy. A small village in Alaska is being evacuated, because of rising sea levels, at a cost of $400,000 per person. There is not enough money on Earth to evacuate everyone threatened by rising sea levels.

What to do? Some people are taking another look at small-scale agriculture, getting away from a dependence on artificial chemicals and fertilizer. Eliminate the middlemen, like advertising and transport, and put more money in the farmer's pocket. Along with local agriculture, consider local power generation.

This is a really eye-opening book. The first half is pretty bleak, showing just how bad things have gotten. But, there is plenty of hope in the second half of the book. It is very much recommended.

Paul Lappen is a freelance book reviewer whose website, http://www.deadtreesreview.com/, has over 800 reviews on all subjects, with an emphasis on small press books.

Fatal Choice Written By Charles E Rickard

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"Fatal Choice" is an excellent awakening of The United States as seen through the eyes of the author. It is frightening, alarming, eye awakening, thought provoking, and a look into your possible future life in The United States. Charles Rickard takes no prisoners nor does he hold back his punches. I read Fatal Choice with an open mind not knowing how bad, or good, things would get as the story unfolded in the near past, the present, and mostly the future. As you read from the first page on I guarantee you will shake your head as to how our nation is now playing into the hands of some of the actions Mr. Rickard described. Some of the authors thoughts might be stretched but how do we, the citizens of The United States, know what lies ahead seeing so many laws of our nation being, or attempting to be changed drastically? We don't, which makes the authors descriptive actions so worrisome. Liberals and Conservatives and anyone in between need to read this book with an open mind and then make up your mind as to how possible the scenarios might be in Fatal Choice.

The prologue gives us a good read on what to expect when a bizarre incident in Dallas just after a wedding where many important officials attended. As the wedding party left the church there was killing galore until all were killed. This leads into what goes on in the book. President Madison was a president that acted like he was a dictator, not a president of the world's largest republic. What he said or thought just had to be, and those that opposed would find themselves isolated from the government or possibly even six-feet under. He had been easing the nation into his ways over some time. He had those he considered close to him, those that he wasn't sure of, and those that had to be eliminated who still wanted our nation as it was meant to be. I am not going to fill this review with names. I choose to give the story of what is going on instead of giving you more names to distinguish.

There were those that recognized what Madison was doing and they were attempting local, area, and national organizations to try to combat the government takeover that was taking freedom from citizens constantly, even from elected officials if they didn't agree with Madison. Cabinet members meant nothing except for their rubber stamp of Madison's orders. Madison also controlled Law enforcement or, in some cases they had no power. Madison hired private agencies to enforce his ways. News media was reduced to several newspapers and several radio and television networks and even these were reduced farther until only Madison's word was placed out there for people to hear. No government was effective for freedom loving citizens, only Madison's government rule. His goons were there to control everything and everyone. Eyes and ears were everywhere. Privacy was gone as were the actions of people.

Some who were fighting Madison were slowly getting organized with much secrecy and with some methods that were used in past years because all new communications were blocked. Some areas of the United States were better able to organize mainly because of the ability of people in that area to come up with ideas of how to organize safely or, as safely as possible. Several nations assisted those opposing Madison in every possible way. Canada and Mexico were of the utmost importance with their adjoining locations. This still didn't mean the "underground" was safe. Many times they were discovered one way or another and were eliminated. One well known man, George Barnes, who had been so well known and liked with his news broadcasting, went to work broadcasting messages and news through a very secret communications setup. The network was almost impossible to stop due to its many areas in and out of the nation.

Don't get too connected with your heroes as you read. They might not be there in the next chapter. I think by now you have the gist of this powerful book. The irony of it is that much of the subject matter mentioned has been occurring or appears set up to happen. Our nation is a great place to grow up in and raise a family. We have freedoms that many people over the earth can only dream of having. They have never known what the word means. If we don't fight for what we have people like President Madison could take over our nation and take our freedoms away before we realized it. Don't let your government control you their way.

Thank you Charles Rickard for this book of warning. I look forward to the next book and can only hope this first book will awaken us all.

Reader review by Cy Hilterman of a book supplied by the author.