Articles Tagged with Books

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I’m no fan of the blood and drugs True Crime sub-genre, but I can’t resist a well written true (or alleged to be true) financial crime story, aka Follow the Money crime, no longer just associated with political crimes.

It’s possible I like them because the best of them are written by people who know their subjects, are excellent story tellers, and who almost always have a sense of humor that takes a slight edge off the outrage.

These are only a few of the many books written about financial and political flim-flams, confidence tricks, swindles, and scams, but they are some of my favorites. There are many more political, financial, and judicial true crime stories I could include … maybe later:

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A recent (Season 5) Malcolm Gladwell Revisionist History podcast reminded me that there is a long history of elections by lottery. (Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell, The Powerball Revolution, Season 5, Episode 3.)

If you want to conduct a thorough literature search of the topic Election by Lottery or Lottery Voting, you’ll need legal, political science, history, and other indexes – indexes and treatises that go back many centuries (i.e. pre-Google). You will also need to search primary sources of law, again back to the beginning of recorded time.

But if you want a basic introduction to the topic, “The Google” and the Scholarly-ish Google will suffice, along with “The Wikipedia.

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Our Oregon public librarians, statewide, have a plan for this! Here is what they have shared with our library community so far (as of June 22, 2020):

Bottom line: “Results show that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was not detectable on the materials after three days of quarantine.”

See more about the REALM Project, Phase 1:

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You may or may not use a serial comma wherever (or nowhere) else you want, but woe to the person who leaves the serial comma out of legal documents, including contracts, legal opinions, statutes, regulations, and any other legal agreement or law that will be interpreted literally (and I mean literally, literally) by parties to the agreement or by a judge – or even, mercy, by a legislator or government lawyer.

Honestly now: Do you really want to pay lawyer(s!) bills and court costs when lawyers, judges, and clients end up doing battle over the meaning of a sentence when the presence of a comma would have allowed everyone to go home to supper and a peaceful night’s sleep?

Lawyers, legislators, drafters of laws, and judges have enough trouble writing clearly without adding to their own and their readers’ woes. Use the serial comma, please. It will save all of us time and money.

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The Psilocybin Service Initiative of Oregon is expected to appear on the 2020 general election ballot.

(If you want to know more about psilocybin, read Michael Pollan’s 2018 book, “How to change your mind.” See also books about LSD microdosing (e.g. Ayelet Waldman’s 2017 “A really good day.”) Compare with Jill Bolte Taylor’s 2006 book (and her TED talk), “My Stroke of Insight,” and her description of how the world looked from her right brain (while her left brain was incapacitated due to a massive stroke.) There is also the Psilocybin Wikipedia page and the Denver, CO, psilocybin ballot measure.)

You can also read the full text of the Psilocybin Service Initiative of Oregon LC (legislative concept) at the Initiatives, Referendums and Referrals database (from the Oregon Secretary of State, Voting and Election website).

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Powell, Melissa M. (ed.) “Becoming an Independent Information Professional: How to Freelance, Consult, and Contract for Fun and Profit.” Libraries Unlimited, 2018. ISBN: 978-1-4408-5540-5

Check your local library or bookstore for this book and other resources on this topic and related small business and independent contractor topics.

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Nation book review: Why Does Our Justice System Fight So Hard to Keep Innocent People Behind Bars? Mark Godsey was a “prosecutor’s prosecutor” who didn’t think there were any innocent people in prison. Then he began supervising his law school’s Innocence Project, and realized his assumptions were all wrong” by Joshua Holland, in The Nation, January 24, 2018:

Excerpt:

“In the criminal-justice system romanticized by Hollywood films, those convicted of crimes are generally guilty. And a protagonist need only prove that someone’s been wrongly imprisoned to get them freed by a judiciary that values truth and justice….

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It’s not an insult, although it could be.

I ran across the word in a recent Christopher Fowler Bryant and May novel (this one was Wild Chamber, but they are all excellent! – each one different, each one fall over funny, dark, wise, and each will make you say, “you too!” when you read/hear Fowler gently poke a stick at the ridiculous, the incomprehensible, the rubbish-talkers) and looked up the word “quango.” Good word, isn’t it, you quango, you.

Anyway, it’s an acronym (which can be distinguished from an abbreviation, in case you thought the two were synonyms – they are not (and for extra credit, the words amuse and bemuse are not synonyms either to the “strictly speaking” among us, although you can render someone bemused by using the two words interchangeably)).

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Political parties are governed by federal, state, and local laws, but more to the point, they are controlled by their own party rules, bylaws, and traditions.

State and County political parties generally post their bylaws, rules, resolutions, and platforms on their websites.

The Oregon Blue Book section National, International and Tribal is a good place to start your research; it will link to statewide political party websites. Those websites will in turn link to local political party websites:

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“Universal Health Care Advocate T.R. Reid on Health Care around the World and in Oregon,” at KBOO (also recorded).

‘…. Reid’s work on the book “The Healing of America” was the basis for a popular PBS film “Sick Around the World,” followed by “US Health Care: the Good News.”

Reid chairs the Colorado Foundation for Universal Health Care that is planning an initiative to achieve universal coverage for all residents. He has challenged Oregon to a contest in which whoever is first in achieving universal care will benefit the other….‘ [KBOO link to today’s (10/21/16 interview with T.R. Reid and link to source broadcast.]

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