How The Government Got In Your Backyard

Aims to offer an unbiased view of the science and politics behind hot-button environmental issues--from pesticides to global warming.

Who Dares Defend Our Rights? We the People! A Message from Your Alleged Betters: Hand Over the Cash! Traitor! You know who you are, you heartless, uncaring cur! You. The one struggling to keep a roof over your head that doesn't leak, to give your kids a decent education, to stave off your family's suffering through any honorable means available and tend to your loved ones when they inevitably do become sick or need help. You're the stingy one, the unpatriotic one, who isn't slicing out and mailing in his or her proper pound of flesh to feed Uncle Sam's bottomless maw of expenditure. Big government wants you¾or, more specifically, all your money and most of your liberty. After all, you do have a job and you are making a living, so you must have crushed entire stratums of society underfoot to get where you are, right? Come on, admit it¾you've probably even got a savings account! Hand it over. Hand over all of it, for the good of. . .well, just hand it over. Are you sick of the nonsense? The feel-good illogic? The morass of corruption and favoritism? The upside-down, inside-out economics that only make sense to someone who never had to balance a real budget? Sure you are. What thinking person wouldn't be? But what can one person do? You possess no aircraft carriers to enforce your will, and you do not want any. Putting one in your backyard wouldn't leave room for the grill. You wield no power of general taxation with which to vex your enemies and reward your cronies. You don't even have any cronies¾just a few good friends. Even if you did decide to raise your one lonely voice, how could you be heard over the on-going, ever-rising uproar of the professional whiners? Take Back Your Government! Sharon Cooper was a housewife in the early 1990s when "Hillary-care," the first attempt at stuffing a nationalized healthcare siphon into the pocket of the middle class, was attempted. Cooper decided enough was enough, got involved, and fought on the front lines against the forces of economic idiocy. The lessons she learned in that contest led her to write The Taxpayer's Tea Party: a Manual on How to Take Back Your Government. Boy do we ever need it now! Well, brace yourself. She's back with a revised edition with a new introduction from former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich¾one who is no stranger to grassroots organizing (and who knows sound political technique when he sees it). Also included is Cooper's original introduction by rabble-rouser-in-chief Rush Limbaugh¾and his trenchant analysis of our times rings true as always. But this is not a tract designed to fire up the troops. Cooper assumes you are fired up enough, or you wouldn't be reading in the first place. This is a how-to manual on how to take back your government. Says so right there in the title. Cooper gives advice on how to write an effective letter to your Congressman, the newspaper¾even the President himself (the latter in order to get it out of your system and allow you to move on to more promising endeavors). Should you mail, fax or e-mail? Cooper lets you know when each is most effective. Are you a bit shy and not sure what "networking" means other than hooking up your computer to the internet? Cooper gives examples from her own experience on how to go about it and retain your dignity in the process. Next, Cooper lays out the influence-peddling power structure of the current political scene in plain daylight. Who are the vulnerable politicos? What's a "Blue Dog Democrat" and how do you go up against the Grand Poobah of a gerrymandered safe district? Finally, Cooper puts you in touch with organizations of like-minded individuals who will fight the good fight by your side. But no Taxpayer's Tea Party would be complete without a little comic relief¾come on, everybody dressed in feathers for the first one! Well, the beautifully-crafted cartoons of Chuck Asay spaced throughout the book will prove to be just the ticket for laughter. Asay gets in some excellent digs at the opposition, but his on-the-money, slice-of-life scenes from the life of those of us who will have to write the checks to pay for the madness are priceless gems indeed! Talk about your taxed-to the-limit moments! Sometimes you just have to laugh to keep from crying. All in all, The Taxpayer's Tea Party is a gritty, glorious account of how to get things done in a democracy. Did it work for Cooper? In the past decade-and-a-half, she's gone from politically-uninvolved housewife to four-term state legislature¾and ignited a fire of rebellion under thousands of taxed-to-the-limit taxpayers that hasn't gone out yet. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Covering more than 100 universal gardening "dos and don'ts," Decoding Gardening Advice is the first book to provide gardeners with the real answers. Jeff Gillman, the bestselling author of The Truth About Garden Remedies, and Meleah Maynard back up every good recommendation with sound horticultural and botanical science. Decoding Gardening Advice is the first and only hard-hitting, evidence-based book that every gardener needs for definitive advice on everything from bulbs, annuals, and perennials to edibles, trees, and soil care.

In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.

The first installment in Jeffery Deaver’s Colter Shaw series—the inspiration for the upcoming CBS original series TRACKER starring Justin Hartley! The son of a survivalist family, Colter Shaw is an expert tracker. Now he makes a living as a “reward seeker,” traveling the country to help police solve crimes and locate missing persons for private citizens. “You’ve been abandoned. Escape if you can. Or die with dignity.” Hired by the father of a young woman who has gone missing in Silicon Valley, Shaw's search takes him into the dark heart of America’s cutthroat billion-dollar video-game industry. When another person goes missing, Shaw must ask: Is a madman bringing a twisted video game to life? Encountering eccentric designers, trigger-happy gamers, and ruthless tech titans, Shaw soon learns that he isn't the only one on the hunt: someone is on his trail and closing fast.... Named a Crime Novel of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, The Never Game proves once more why “Deaver is a genius when it comes to manipulation and deception” (Associated Press). CBS, CBS Eye Design, and related logos are trademarks of CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. TRACKER is a trademark of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Used under license.

“An intense, provocative, and vital crime story that excavates paradoxical dimensions of race, class, sexism, family bonds, and social obligation while seeking the deepest meaning of the law." — Booklist Originally published posthumously by his daughter and literary executor Julia Wright, A Father’s Law is the novel Richard Wright, acclaimed author of Black Boy and Native Son, never completed. Written during a six-week period prior to his death in Paris in 1960, it offers a fascinating glimpse into the writer’s process as well as providing an important addition to Wright’s body of work. In rough form, Wright expands the style of a crime thriller to grapple with themes of race, class, and generational conflicts as newly appointed police chief Ruddy Turner begins to suspect his own son, Tommy, a student at the University of Chicago, of a series of murders in Brentwood Park. Under pressure to solve the killings and prove himself, Turner spirals into an obsession that forces him to confront his ambivalent relationship with a son he struggles to understand. Prescient, raw, and powerful, A Father's Law is the final gift from a literary giant.