Reading is Fundamental

Dear Friends,

Those of us who are old enough will remember when the phrase, "Reading is Fundamental", was used extensively to encourage reading among the young....and probably everone else too.  I don't see it used any longer and that's disapointing because as a society we seem to read less than ever and understand less than ever while adamantly embracing the conclusions of our ignorance, which constitutes stupid - and stupid can't be fixed because stupid people refuse to learn, and that includes a great many over educated under smart people.   

However - ignorance only means we don't know.  Ignorance is fixable - all we have to do is be willing to find out what the facts really are.   And that starts with a good history lesson - none of which can be found in America's schools or universities. 

Over the years I foolishly thought just because I read something or knew something - everyone knew it also - and I didn't understand why they didn't come to my conclusions.  Talk about dumb! 

That's not the way the universe works.  Some people read and some people don't.   Some think deeply, some don't.  Some people watched Fred Friendly's Ethics in America series and .... well.... most didn't have a clue what I was talking about, and the rest only thought they might have heard about it - and they were a very small minority.  And I was stunned!

The fact of the matter is - some people are interested and some people aren't.  I hate doing mechanical work - others think that's the greatest thing since New York style cheesecake.   But - that's the way it is! 

However, that shouldn't mean abandoning the goal of encouraging everyone  to read books - articles aren't enough - we need books for depth.   Just discussing what you've read is an encouragement, and even if they don't read - at least people will get the knowledge through you. 

I don't buy into some of the views in some of the books listed here.  As example - Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.  He's a loon - a frightening loon - but Hillary, Obama and a great many on the left in powerful positions are deciples of Alinsky.  We need to know what the other side says if we're to be able to overcome those views.  We need to be in this arena if we're to be worthwhile leaders of our industry. 

So, by way of encouragement to those who might be willing to jump into this arena I'm posting the last 50 books I've read over the last few years.

Best wishes,

Rich Kozlovich

1. The Accidental Super Power, The next Generation of American preeminence and the Coming Global Disorder, but Peter Zeihan
2. 33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask, Thomas E. Woods Jr.
3. America's Way Back, Reclaiming Freedom, Tradition, and Constitution, By Donald J. Devine
4. Are Children More Vulnerable to Environmental Chemicals? Scientific and Regulatory Issues in Perspective, American Council on Science and Health
5. The Big Ripoff, How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money, by Timothy P. Carney
6. America's War on “Carcinogens”, Reassessing the Use of Animal Tests To Predict Human Cancer Risk, American Council on Science and Health (Editor's Note:  This no longer appears to be available in book form, but the link is to a PDF of the book.  This is a must read!  RK)
7. Climategate, A Veteran Meteorologist Exposes the Global Warming Scam, by Brian Sssman
8. Conservatives are form Mars, Liberals Are From San Francisco, 101 Reasons Why I'm Happy I Left the Left, by Burt Prelutsky
9. Damned Lies and Statistics, Untangling Numbers From the Media, Politicians, and Activists, by Joel Best
10. Day of Reckoning, How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed are Tearing American Apart, by Pat Buchanan
11. Eco-Imperialism, Green Power, Black Death, but Paul Driessen
12. Eco-Freaks, Environmentalism is Hazardous to Your Health, By John Berlau
13. Eco-Tyranny, how the Left's Green Agenda Will Dismantle America, By Brian Sussman
14. Ecological Sanity, by Claus and Bolander
15. Economic Facts and Fallacies, Tomas Sowell
16. The Forgotten Man, A New History of the Great Depression, by Amity Shlaes
17. The Excellent Powder, DDT's Political and Scientific History, by Donald Roberts, Rchard Tren with Roger Bate and Jennifer Zambone
18. The Fluoride Wars, How a Modest Public Health Measure became American's Longest Running Political Melodrama, by R. Allan Freeze and Jay H. Lehr
19. Green Gone Wild, Elevating nature Above Human Rights, by David Stirling
20. Green Hell, How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them, by Steve Milloy
21. Guns, Germs, and Steel, The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond
22. Gusher of Lies, The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence”, by Robert Bryce
23. Hoodwinked, How Intellectual Hucksters Have Hijacked American Culture, Jack Cashill
24. Intellectual morons, how Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas, by Daniel J. Flynn
25. Intellectuals and Society, by Thomas Sowell
26. Inside the Third Reich, Memoirs of Albert Speer
27. Junk Science Judo, Self-Defense Against Health Scares and Scams, by Seven J. Milloy
28. A Man Called Intrepid, The Incredible WWII Narrative of the Hero Whose Spy Network and Secret Diplomacy Changed the Course of History, by William Stevenson
29. The Marketing of Evil, How Radicals, Elitists and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom, but David Kupelia
30. Meltdown, A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse, by Thomas E. Woods Jr.
31. Nazi Oaks, The Green Sacrifice of the Judeo-Christian Worldview in the Holocaust, by R. Mark Musser
32. A Poverty of Reason, Sustainable Development and Economic Growth,  by Wilfred Beckerman (booklet)
33. Myths of Rich and Poor, Why We're Better Off Than We Think, by W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm
34. A Man of Letters, by Thomas Sowell
35. Please Stop Helping Us, How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed, by Jason L. Riley
36. Interpreting the Precautionary Principle, by Tim O'Riordan and James Cameron
37. Rules for Radicals, A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals, by Saul D. Alinsky
38. The Prince of Darkness, 50 Years of Reporting in Washington, by Robert D. Novak
39. The Really Inconvenient Truths, Seven Environmental Catastrophes Liberals Don't Want You To Know About – Because They Helped Cause Them, by Iain Murray
40. RATS, Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants, by Robert Sullivan
41. The Rat Catcher's Child, The History of the Pest Control Industry, by Dr. Robert Snetsinger
42. Silent Spring at 50, The False Crisis of Rachel Carson, Edited by Roger Meiners, Peirre Desrochers, and Andrew Morriss
43. Stalin's Secret Agents, The Subversion of Roosevelt's Government, by M. Stanton Evans and Herbert Romerstein
44. Spin Masters, How the Media Ignored the Real News and Helped Reelect Barack Obama, by David Freddoso
45. Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson
46. Silencing Science, by Steven Milloy and Michael Gouch (Editor's Note:  This is a booklet, so I don't know why the price is so high, so explore the "See Buying Options" link.   
47. The Skeptical Environmentalist, Measuring the Real State of the World, by Bjorn Lomborg
48. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor, by David S. Landes
49. The World is Flat, A brief History of The Twenty-First Century, by Thomas L. Friedman
50. Whores, Why and How I Came to Fight the Establishment, by Larry Klayman