Customer Comments

tgrang13 has commented on (35) products.

Corporations Are Not People: Why They Have More Rights Than You Do and What You Can Do about It by Jeffrey D Clements

tgrang13, July 30, 2012

I was expecting a lot more from this book, honestly. I thought that it was good, but it is really not a "definitive guide to overturning Citizens' United" as is stated at the top of the cover. However, there was a lot of interesting insight as to why we got to where we are today in the debate of whether or not corporations are people(by the way, they are not), and if they are afforded the same rights to free speech as actual humans. I enjoyed this book, but I don't think that I would recommend it to a lot of people. If you do want to read it, I would just go into it knowing that it is basically a history lesson on how our government concluded that corporations are people.

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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

tgrang13, July 17, 2012

Michelle Alexander is a genius. This book is one of the most well-researched books I have ever read. No stone was left unturned. She explains the history of how we got to the position we are in with the mass incarceration of black men all the way from the days of slavery. She helped me to understand that segregation is still alive and well, it only wears a new mask. The details of this book are certainly troubling, though. It is basically going to take a lot of work and a long time before a dent is even put into the problem of America's new segregation. This book also explains how we have developed a racial caste system via incarceration. So many subjects in this book are covered pertaining to the issue of mass incarceration in the days of "colorblindness." Everything from racial profiling, to political gains, to Supreme Court cases that have not only allowed for all of this to happened, but almost encouraged it through their outrageous decisions. I would highly recommend this book to everybody I know, but one be warned that it is very intense and in-depth. It is almost textbook-like. All of it was absolutely fascinating, but it was definitely not a quick read for me. I enjoyed all of it regardless.

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Better Than Sex Confessions of a Politic by Hunter S Thompson

tgrang13, July 5, 2012

The first 100 or so pages of this book are absolutely hilarious! However, the rest starts to drag on quite a bit and it loses its freshness. It starts to become a little bit repetitive with all the letters and faxes that he writes that none of us outsiders would understand. Overall, still a very good read though. Dr. Thompson is one of my favorite authors, and although this is not my favorite book that I read by him, I would still recommend this to anybody, especially if they like politics as much as I do. However, if you are not old enough to remember a lot of the details about the Clinton campaign and the beginning of his presidency, then you might be a little lost with some of the material. But it is classic gonzo.

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9-11 by Noam Chomsky

tgrang13, June 29, 2012

This was a very interesting book. It should be taken into account though that this book was written within a year of September 11. I found it very interesting some of the predictions that Chomsky made about what will happen in the future. Some of which he was right on point, and others he was not. I don't think he could have even dreamed of something so damaging to our freedom as the Patriot Act. This book is a compilation of several interviews that Chomsky did with reporters from many different countries. It is interesting to see the questions that people from other countries ask, because it gives the reader an idea of the perspective of the general opinion of the people of the country from which the reporter is from. The only part about this book that I did not like was that many of Chomsky's explanations said things like, "I've explained this elsewhere" or "I can't go into detail here." I wanted to know where he had written about this, or at least I wish he would have given a little bit of explanations of subjects that he said this about. Either way, I think that it is worth reading. It is very short, and Noam Chomsky is brilliant, of course.

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Oh, the Things I Know! by Al Franken

tgrang13, June 26, 2012

I love Al Franken, but I could not even make it half way through this book. It was not funny, not informative, and not much of anything really; other than him just sort of rambling on and on and on and on...... I must say that this book was a big disappointment, because I do admire Al not only for his comedic talent but for his intelligence and all of the wonderful things he has done in recent years as a U.S. Senator. However, do not waste your time or money on this book. You will be disappointed, especially if you are a big Al Franken fan such as myself.

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