The Naomis Rock

Of all of the political/cultural books out there currently, my vote as must-reads goes to the two Naomis: Klein and Wolf.
Naomi Klein for "The Shock Doctrine" (video embedded in this blog earlier in the month) and Naomi Wolf for "The End of America". (video embedded in this blog yesterday). Not to be missed by the serious student or serious citizen.

We have been going through rapid change in our country ever since 9/11. The Patriot Act is absurdly named; designed to make us feel safer as a democracy but it has of course limited our freedoms as citizens and should be named "the Brown Shirt Act" or "the Civil Liberties Restriction Act". Under the most recent legislation handed to Bush on a silver platter is the ability to name any citizen of the US "enemy combatant" for any reason which the government sees fit, AND without the onus to have to provide said citizen with a reason, a charge; no communicaton is required. Just name someone as an EC and arrest them, hold them in solitary for three years before needing to come up with a charge. Oh and btw, family and friends do not need to be notified. You just sort of "disappear".

I believe we are under that old Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times."