The last 5 (or so) books you read that had some effect on your political views?

Free Lunch

Eco Barons

The Last American Aristocrat

Oily Politicians

The Life of the Party

Independent I guess. I voted for Cynthia McKinney.

The most recent political book I read was Sweet Poison - by Janet Starr Hull. Its all about the DANGERS of the chemical called Aspartame.

Janet tells the story of how she becme ill after drinking lots and lots of diet soda, how the doctors had no idea what was wrong , and how they eventually diagnosed her with Graves disease. There was just one problem - one of the symptoms of graves disease is the unexplained LOSS of weight. Janet was not losing weight - she was putting weight on - growing fatter.

She describes how she had to investigate what the effects of Aspartame are on the human boy. She looked into

how the FDA approved the use of Aspartame as a food additive and how people have been sick ever since.

It tells me that the US government does not give a damn about people and safety. They only care that they get their money and that the big business be able to make their huge profits and the govt get their share of that money through bribes and taxes.

If I was an american - I would have voted for Obama. But I now regret that decision. I should have voted for Ron Paul as a write-in.

I am so glad I am not an american.

I'm currently reading Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals." Obama has said on numerous occasions that it is the single book which had the greatest influence on his life.

I am struck by the similarities between it and Marx and Engel's "Communist Manifesto." Rules is the Manifesto in more modern terms, but written for an obviously less intelligent audience than the Manifesto. "Haves and have nots" instead of "bourgeois and proletariat."

It is the Manifesto with a smiley face.

If you have ever read the Manifesto, and then read Rules, you'll agree that Alinsky should have been sued for plagiarism.

It's funny, the Romans and Greeks had pretty much the same arguments today's English literature portrays. Of course, the Romans equated patriotism with piety and adopted gods. So, Livy.

I'm a Yellow-Dog Democrat. Government dictates wealth. Always has. Always will.

United in Hate:

The Left's Romance With Tyranny and Terror

By Jamie Glazov

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Liberal Fascism

The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning

By Jonah Goldberg

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Defeating the Totalitarian Lie:

A Former Hitler Youth Warns America

By Hilmar von Campe

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Brainwashed

How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth

By: Ben Shapiro

"The Republican War on Science"

"Don't Get Too Comfortable"

"It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush"

"Freakonomics"

"Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul"

Conscience of a Liberal is the only book on your list that I have read. It informed some of my opinions, it did not change them.