Really?!

Apparently now it’s President Obama’s fault that there wasn’t an “orderly transition” in Iraq??? Or, so says the GOP.  Never mind that the first few orders given by Paul Bremer after the fall of Baghdad in 2003 virtually guaranteed the instability that resulted.  Let us not forget that Bremer totally disbanded the existing political and security institutions.  He fired the entire bureaucracy, making certain that all knowledge of how things worked disappeared.  And he disbanded the entire military and police forces, putting thousands of trained people out of work.  And we were surprised that an insurgency developed???

You can spin history all you want, but you can’t change the facts.  Epic FAIL!

Read Full Post »

Let the energy debate begin

The situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in Japan seems to be more dire as time goes on.  Not only does the news about the extent of damage and the potential for further radiation releases continue to escalate, but now we’re hearing that TEPCO, the utility company, vastly underestimated the potential for the very sort of devastating tsunami that caused the cascade of events.

It’s no wonder that the utility doesn’t seem to know how to solve the cooling problem.  I’m not certain that it is “solvable” in the conventional sense of the term.  Four reactors in trouble, along with several spent fuel cooling ponds.  There is concern of breaches to the ponds, meaning that water will need to be added continually — possibly for years until the spent fuel has cooled enough to be transferred to dry cask storage or eventual reprocessing or permanent storage.  And there is concern that at least one of the reactor containment vessels may have cracked.  Both problems make it almost impossible to contain the radiation, and we’ve seen levels up to 100,000 times normal in parts of the plant.  Elevated radiation levels, while still too low to cause immediate risk to human health, have been detected thousands of miles from the crippled plant.

It’s not surprising that people are wrestling with the advisability of increased use of nuclear energy here at home, in addition to the fact that most of our nuclear power stations are nearing or even beyond their design life.

No form of energy production is without risk.  That goes without saying.  But what is needed is an open and honest conversation  about risks, and about life cycle costs of the various forms of energy we currently use, including renewable sources.  We need to know the per megawatt cost of the entire life cycle — licensing, construction, operation, maintenance, fuel costs, decommissioning/dismantlement of the plants.  We also need to know and to understand the costs of rendering safe any  waste products of each energy source.  And we need that information for all types of electric generation — hydro, geothermal, solar, wind, natural gas, coal, petroleum and nuclear.  And finally, we need to know all the ways in which government subsidizes various forms of energy generation and the ways in which government guarantees against losses that might be incurred by investors or insurers in the event of a failure somewhere in the generating process.

It is only in knowing all of the above information and being able to compare one energy source’s costs and risks against the others that we truly can understand what is at stake.  We know that petroleum is a finite resource.  When it will run out can be open to debate, but it will eventually run out.  Having an informed conversation about the uses of petroleum products (beyond burning them to generate electricity and power our vehicles) is essential.  And it is equally essential to expand that conversation to the point that we recognize that not all petroleum was created equal.  The oil that comes from some locations burns cleaner than that from other locations.  And it’s not equal in terms of the cost of extraction.

Read Full Post »

Where are the jobs, Mr. Speaker?

During the campaign leading up to the midterm elections, the GOP hammered the Democrats on the issue of jobs.  Yet, the first order of business when the GOP-led House began its session was to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  The repeal effort is loaded with irony, being almost exclusively a symbolic act that has no chance of succeeding through the Senate and surviving the inevitable presidential veto.  Contrary to GOP claims (and the title of the bill) that health care reform is a job-killer, it seems far more likely to be a job creator — mostly jobs in the private sector.  I enumerated some of that in my previous post, and while the numbers I suggested may have been inflated, I didn’t mention the new jobs in the health care sector itself that would be created.

The very next bill the House GOP is taking up is also largely if not totally symbolic: a permanent ban on Federal funds being used for abortion services.  Speaker Boehner and the GOP seem to have overlooked the Hyde Bill, which does prevent Federal funds to be used for abortions.  And the dreaded “Obamacare” act also contains provisions that ensure that no Federal funds will be used for abortions.  And this bill, as well as the health care repeal bill accomplishes nothing to create jobs and is more sound and fury, signifying only a sop to the GOP base.

Somewhere after they finish the symbolic moves, the GOP has signaled that they’re going to attack the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases.  And, not surprisingly, they’re pointing to the “job-killing” aspects of regulations they don’t like.  Actually, it’s more like regulations the oil industry doesn’t like.  The truth of the matter is that moving to alternative forms of energy creates jobs.  Yes, there will be some jobs that will be phased out — jobs in the petroleum industry.  But that will happen over decades as the supply of petroleum on the planet is exhausted.  And the sooner we can begin a shift to non-petroleum-based energy, the longer the petroleum will last, along with the jobs in that industry.  Meanwhile, thousands of new jobs will be created — many more than will likely be lost.  That doesn’t sound like a job-killing idea.

Mr. Speaker, when are you actually going to do something toward creating jobs — something other than constantly using the phrase “job killing” when describing anything that might actually move the country forward?

Read Full Post »

The other guy made me do it

That seems to be the rationale of people like Glen Beck and Sarah Palin.  Both have chosen to respond to criticism that perhaps their political rhetoric has contributed to the vitriolic tone of our discourse by claiming that they are just doing what the other side has done.

Let me put my “mom hat” on for just a minute.  Since when do two wrongs make a right?  Blaming the other guy is a pretty poor excuse.  No body else can be held responsible for what another person says or does.  Someone can make us angry or frightened, but what we do with that emotion is entirely our own responsibility.  And just as that applies to an ordinary citizen who might feel that the heated rhetoric serves as a kind of permission to take action, so too does it apply to political and media figures who feel the heat when their own words or actions are called into question.

If political and media figures are so convinced that their words do not have any effect on another person’s actions, then why do they willingly spend so much money on advertising?

Read Full Post »

Health care debate, part 2

This week, the House of Representatives is taking up the case to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act of 2010.  House Republicans campaigned on the call to repeal and replace what they derisively call “Obamacare.”  However, their efforts are little more than political theater.  The Senate is unlikely to go along, and President Obama has promised to veto any repeal legislation that reaches his desk.

Unfortunately, the debate promises to shed precious little light on the topic, despite the GOP promises.  The first hint come in the title of the bill to repeal.  House Republicans claim that the health care law is a job killer, or as they’ve changed the name of the bill a job-destroyer.  They cite a figure of 1.6 million jobs, claiming the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) as the source of their information.  And in a time of high unemployment (over 9% for the past 20 months), the idea of the economy shedding another 1.6 million jobs is sure to provide some political hay.  But let’s look more closely at that claim.  The 1.6 million figure is what the CBO estimates will be the number of Americans who can now afford to retire since the health care law was signed — people who have been working primarily to obtain health insurance.   That doesn’t sound like job-killing so much as a job creation effort — those 1.6 million new retirees will free up jobs for people who need and want them.  But it wouldn’t make much sense to try to repeal health care law by calling it a “Job Creating Health Care Law Act”, would it?  Further adding to the numbers is a Harvard study that demonstrates that repeal itself would cost somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000 jobs.  That means a total swing of nearly 2 million jobs should repeal pass.

Polls are showing that even among Republicans, as Americans learn more about how the Affordable Health Care Act will actually affect them, the anger and opposition to it are diminishing.  And with that, support for full repeal is also decreasing.  In fact, when you look more closely at the numbers, those touted by the GOP as favoring repeal include a sizeable percentage who want the current law strengthened!

Ah, but what about the other half of the “repeal and replace” equation?  What does the GOP plan to replace it with, should repeal succeed?  Well, it appears that the GOP leadership is well aware of the silliness of their efforts because even after debating the current law and promising to come up with their own plan, it turns out that they still don’t really have a plan.  Sure, they have a rudimentary philosophical framework, but nothing concrete.  There isn’t much point in having a real plan when you know that your repeal efforts are strictly symbolic, that they have no chance of making it through the entire legislative process.  Yet, they proceed.

What the GOP fails to understand is that when you’re a majority in one of the legislative bodies, some responsibility for actually governing comes with the territory.  It will be interesting to see what they have on their agenda besides more doomed attempts to undo President Obama’s legislative accomplishments and threatening to vote against raising the debt ceiling.  Like some conservatives I know, it seems that the House GOP members are content to stand on ideology, even in the face of facts that warn against taking the extreme measures they support.

Read Full Post »

Thoughts on violent political rhetoric and political violence

Like most people, I was horrified to learn of the attempt on the life of Rep. Gabrielle Gifford (D-AZ8).  While she is not my representative, I have friends in her district, so it hit closer to home.  Not surprisingly, Sarah Palin’s aide is denying any connection between the shooting and Palin’s target list, the one that showed a number of Democratic districts in the cross-hairs.  And Sen. Alexander (R-TN) chooses to accuse the media of irresponsibility for even bringing up a possible connection.

So, was it a predictable result of an over-heated political atmosphere or simply the random act of a deranged individual?  Or, was it a combination of the two?  It seems entirely possible that the images of cross-hairs, the comments about “Second Amendment remedies”, about wanting constituents “armed and dangerous”, about “don’t retreat, reload,” and the like are enough to push unbalanced people over the edge.  Free speech is a right, but like all rights, it comes with responsibility attached.  And before any of us engages in violent rhetoric, we should consider that there are people out there who are sufficiently detached from reality to take our words literally.

Democracy needs dissent, but we can disagree without becoming disagreeable.  My kids will nod knowingly when they read that.  It was something I said to them many times as they were growing up.  I don’t mind if you disagree with me, but don’t be disagreeable in the way you go about it.  That means a measure of respect for the other person and their ideas, and even the willingness to consider that he or she might be onto something you haven’t yet considered.   I love a good debate, but I will and do walk away when the conversation gets ugly, when the other person chooses to attack a person rather than an idea.

And isn’t it also possible that those who use violent political rhetoric will be the recipients of violence, should they take a position that someone opposes?  So far, that possibility seems totally lost on those who use violent rhetoric.

 

Read Full Post »

Where are the jobs?

Perhaps the better question to ask is, “Why are no new jobs being created?”  Answer that question, and the question of where the jobs are will be obvious.  Some members of the punditocracy (and their allies on Capital Hill) continue to serve up the “uncertainty” argument.

Don’t be fooled.  It’s a bogus argument.  Uncertainty is never going to go away.  There has always been uncertainty about interest rates, about tax rates and the like.  Business growth is always marked by uncertainty.

The real reason that new jobs aren’t being created is that there isn’t yet enough demand for products and services to warrant hiring.  And why isn’t the demand there?  People who are out of work don’t have extra money to spend.  And with unemployment running at nearly 10%, not counting the levels of underemployment or the people who are so discouraged they’ve quit looking, a lot of demand has evaporated from the marketplace.  So, if we really want to create an environment that would grow jobs and grow the economy, we need to get more money into the hands of the people who would spend it, not save it.  We need to extend unemployment insurance benefits through 2011 and continue the payroll tax holiday.

Yet, the Republicans continue to preach the benefits of permanently extending the Bush tax cuts, even for the richest of Americans.  It matters not that the majority of Americans don’t want the cuts extended for high earners.  It matters not that history has proven without doubt that lowering taxes on the highest earners does not actually create jobs.  Those who have more money than they can spend don’t need a tax break.  But those of us who would actually spend the money do.  It even matters not that Bruce Bartlett (Ronald Reagan’s head of OMB) and folks like Warren Buffett say that the wealthiest Americans should be paying more taxes.

Let’s look at the realities of the tax cut argument.  Does anyone with more than two or three active brain cells actually believe that a business owner would forgo over $60,000 in after tax profit just to save $4600 in taxes?

The CBO was asked to evaluate 11 potential policy decisions for their effect on job creation, the economy in general and the deficit.  The one that scored the highest — i.e., most stimulative effect on the economy with least impact on the deficit — was continuation of unemployment insurance benefits.  So which one did the GOP immediately refuse to implement?  Extending unemployment benefits.  Go figure.

Most economists worry that the struggling economy will falter with the loss of the billions in spending those unemployment checks represent.  Perhaps the bigger question is whether the GOP will pay a political price for its intransigence.  Even Scrooge figured out that he didn’t want to face the ghost of Christmas Future…  There is a lesson there.  Will the Republicans learn it before there is much more suffering imposed on people who are already struggling to make ends meet?  Will the voters figure out that the GOP cares more about the top 2% than it does about the millions of Americans whose greatest wish for the holiday season is a job?

Read Full Post »

A la Carte Government

Yesterday, we got an indication of what a la carte government could look like when we learned of the fire department that sat and watched a family’s home burn to the ground because they hadn’t paid their annual fee for fire services.  The actions of that fire department touched a chord with many people.  It just seemed so very wrong that fire fighters would do such a thing — as wrong as if a hospital turned a seriously ill or injured patient away if they lacked health insurance.  Last night the same Tennessee county voted to expand subscription-only fire service, thus putting increasing numbers of families at risk of delay at best and refusal to provide service at worst.

The local mayor compared fire-service to auto insurance, a comparison that may sound correct at first glance.  However, closer consideration demonstrates just how crazy that analogy is.  Does anyone really think that first responders are like insurance?  Yes, we’re required to have insurance on our vehicles — at least liability insurance — should we be involved in a wreck.  And if we have a mortgage on our home, we’re required by the lender to have insurance so that the lender is compensated should the property be destroyed.  And even if we stay in that home long enough to pay off the mortgage, no sane, rational person would do without fire insurance.  Our hospitals are prohibited from turning emergency patients away based on whether they have health insurance.

The irony of the situation in Obion County, Tennessee, is that the county did a study a couple years ago that addressed the best way to provide fire service to all its residents.  Section 4 of the report details possible funding options and concludes that the simplest way would have been to raise property taxes by a mere thirteen cents.  That solution was deemed the most inflation proof, because as costs and values rose, the revenue would rise accordingly.  The subscription-only option was estimated to cost $113 per home, excluding commercial properties.  Landlords would have passed the cost onto renters, as with any tax.  But the county fathers, largely conservatives who despise taxes, opted for the subscription approach.

Turns out that at least three homes and a barn had previously been allowed to burn, killing household pets, plus a number of horses in the barn fire.  And in the most recent incident, the fire actually started as a trash fire in a corn field, a fire that spread to the house.  Would the fire department also stand by if people were trapped in a fire at an address that “wasn’t on the list” of people who’d paid their subscription fee?

Have we become so selfish as a society that we are willing to let people’s houses burn to the ground in order to avoid a small tax hike to ensure that everyone has access to basic governmental services?  This is insanity.  We’re seeing libraries close, fire stations shuttered, governmental offices so short-staffed that they epitomize lousy customer service, teachers laid off, school buildings deteriorating, out-of-date textbooks in overcrowded classrooms.  Our roads are crumbling, as are our bridges, water pipes, sewers, and even our electrical grid.  We’re been engaged in a “starve the beast” exercise for several decades with a seemingly endless push to cut taxes.  Is it any surprise that services are suffering?  Except it’s the services that most people depend on that have been starved.  Meanwhile conservatives decry the “nanny state” while offering all sorts of perks, tax breaks and regulations filled with enough loopholes you could drive a truck through them to their cronies.

Simply raising taxes won’t solve our problems.  But our physical and intellectual infrastructure won’t cure itself without attention and investment.  It’s not going to be easy, and it won’t happen over night.  We need to educate ourselves about what government can and should do.  And we need to fund it so that it can do those things  We need to insist that government serve all the people, not just those at the top of the economic ladder.  And we need to demand that those at the top contribute to the common good in proportion to their wealth.

I’d like to see each and every person in this country have to pay something in income taxes, even if it’s only $1.  That gives everyone some skin in the game.

Read Full Post »

Is this a vision of the future?

Several news stories today caught my attention.  The first concerned a house fire in rural Obion County, Tennessee.  Fire services there are “by subscription.”  That means that instead of the fire department funding coming from property taxes, homeowners pay a fee to the local fire department.  A house caught fire.  The owner hadn’t paid the annual subscription fee.  So, the fire department arrived but watched the house burn to the ground and only responded when the flames ignited the neighboring house, whose owner had paid the fee.  When questioned, the local officials were unsympathetic.  One can only imagine the consequences had someone been trapped inside the burning building.  The unfortunate thing is that this is the future if we are so opposed to taxes of any sort.  Those who can afford the services that are part of the common good will receive them.  The rest will have to fend for themselves.  In this instance, the people living in the burning home struggled to put the fire out with a garden hose, only to have it burn to the ground, along with all of their possessions.  Ah, you say, the owners should have paid the fee.  But, what about renters?  If you rent your home and the landlord doesn’t pay the fee and doesn’t bother to tell you, or if the system required the owner alone to pay, and the house catches fire, what happens then?  Now, raise that situation to an apartment house.  One unit catches fire, and the entire building burns to the ground.   Certainly there is moral responsibility to the renters, but is there legal liability?

The second story concerned the “near record” profits of US corporations this past quarter.  That might explain why the stock market has rebounded, but given that the profits came at the expense of jobs, it also explains why most Americans are skeptical that the recession has actually ended.   A related story appeared in the L.A. Times today, relating how California almond growers are increasingly turning to mechanical picking.  Increased automation can add greatly to productivity in many businesses.  But there is a point beyond which it is counter productive.  Consumers cannot consume if they don’t have jobs.  And consumer spending is the life blood of the US economy.  If you follow the concept of increasing automation to its logical conclusion, you have a world where there are corporate executives, along with a few relatively low-wage individuals to serve as “administrative assistants” to make travel reservations, make coffee and clean the executive suites, plus a few technicians to maintain the automation equipment.  The actual manufacturing is all done robotically.  And robots don’t demand higher wages or benefits or workplace safety.  It’s an executive’s dream. But robots don’t make many purchases.  I recently saw a video clip of an amazing piece of machinery that is being used to replace worn railroad ties.  Instead of an entire crew of workers wielding shovels, picks and sledge hammers, this machine gets by with one person to “drive” the machine down the track and two additional people on each side, reattaching the rail to the new ties.  Yes, of course, manufacturing the piece of machinery took engineers to design it, and a factory in which to build it.  But where is that factory?  And is it automated so that robots do most of the manufacturing?

And the third story is actually a recurring one.  Despite all of the air time, newsprint, and bandwidth devoted to conservatives talking about the need to cut government spending, when pressed, few can name significant programs they’d cut.  Sure, there’s the talk about eliminating the Department of Education — but we also want good schools and most of us understand that there is a direct connection between education and employability in most areas of the economy.  Low wage workers have been hit the hardest in this recession, and the jobs that have been lost to automation represent permanent job losses.  Those workers will need to be retrained for new jobs.  But while millions remain unemployed, who will provide the funding to retrain those whose jobs have disappeared permanently?  Especially if tax increases are off the table politically?

The future does indeed look grim if the no-tax, no spending folks take over.  If you thought the country suffered under the trickle down policies of the Reagan-Bush-Bush years, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!  During economic hard times, the government has been the employer of last resort.  During the Depression of the 1930s, FDR’s New Deal policies included things like the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps that provided jobs and the accompanying restoration of dignity while constructing infrastructure projects like the Hoover Dam, electricity to Appalachia, and the construction of facilities at our national parks so the wonders of this country’s beauty could be enjoyed by us all.

What’s missing today?  It seems that the biggest lack is the recognition that there is a common good.  Despite what conservatives and libertarians would have us believe, history shows us that when the middle class does well, when overall poverty rates are reduced, everyone benefits — even those at the top.  And surprisingly, the top benefits even more than when the goodies accrue largely to the top 2%.  Something to think about.

Read Full Post »

Celebrate Banned Books Week…

by reading at least one book from the list below.  It is a compilation of the 100 most challenged books during the years 1990 – 2009, as compiled by the American Librarian’s Association.

Some of these books have adult themes, and parents are well within their rights and responsibilities to guide their children to wait to read them “until they are older.”  Others are standard entries on middle and high school reading lists.  Still others can serve as jumping off points for discussions within families of values, stereotypes, and aspects of our history. But the act of banning them from libraries, especially public libraries, removes them from access by adults as well as children.  And many of these books are considered classics, required reading for educated people.

The irony is that the very act of banning them actually increases their appeal.  How many times did you or your kids sneak into a movie theater to see an “R” rated movie before you or they were old enough?  How many times did you or they read a book that your clergy person said you shouldn’t?  The mere act of banning a book makes it seem like forbidden fruit, and therefore all the more tantalizing.  A friend of mine has remarked that having a Kindle or other e-reader makes it possible to read those books anywhere without anyone knowing.  She recently downloaded Lady Chatterly’s Lover, simply to see what all the fuss was about.  Isn’t there something of that sort of rebel in all of us?

So, be a rebel.  Celebrate banned books week.  Read a banned book.

A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess

A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck

A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway.

A Light in the Attic, by Shel Silverstein.

A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving

A Separate Peace, by John Knowles.

A Time to Kill, by John Grisham

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren.

Always Running, by Luis Rodriguez

America: A Novel, by Frank, E.R.

American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis.

An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser.

Anastasia (series), by Lois Lowry

And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell

Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging, by Louise Rennison

Annie on My Mind, by Nancy Garden.

Are You There, God?  It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume

Arizona Kid, by Ron Koertge.

Arming America, by Michael Bellasiles

As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner.

Asking About Sex and Growing Up, by Joanna Cole.

Athletic Shorts, by Chris Crutcher

Beloved, by Toni Morrison

Black Boy, by Richard Wright

Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya

Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause

Blubber, by Judy Blume

Boys and Sex, by Wardell Pomeroy.

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson

Bumps in the Night, by Harry Allard

Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey

Carrie, by Stephen King.

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller.

Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut.

Christine, by Stephen King.

Crazy Lady, by Jane Leslie Conly

Crazy:  A Novel, by Benjamin Lebert

Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat, by Alvin Schwartz.

Cujo, by Stephen King.

Curses, Hexes and Spells, by Daniel Cohen.

Cut, by Patricia McCormick

Daddy’s Roommate, by Michael Willhoite.

Daughters of Eve, by Lois Duncan

Deal With It!, by Esther Drill

Deenie, by Judy Blume.

Detour for Emmy, by Marilyn Reynolds

Draw Me A Star, by Eric Carle

Earth’s Children (series), by Jean M. Auel.

Fade, by Robert Cormier.

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers

Family Secrets, by Norma Klein.

Fat Kid Rules the World, by K.L. Going

Final Exit, by Derek Humphry.

Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes.

For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway.

Forever, by Judy Blume

Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissenger

Girls and Sex, by Wardell Pomeroy.

Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous

Go Tell It on the Mountain, byJ ames Baldwin.

Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell.

Goosebumps (series), by R.L. Stine

Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar

Grendel, by John Gardner

Guess What?, by Mem Fox.

Halloween ABC, by Eve Merriam.

Harris and Me, by Gary Paulsen

Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad.

Heather Has Two Mommies, by Lesléa Newman.

His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman

How to Eat Fried Worms, by Thomas Rockwell.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou

I Saw Esau, by Iona Opte

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote.

In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak

Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison.

It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris

It’s So Amazing, by Robie Harris

Jack, by A. M. Homes.

James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl.

Jay’s Journal, by Anonymous.

Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Graighead George

Jump Ship to Freedom, by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier.

Jumper, by Steven Gould.

Junie B. Jones (series), by Barbara Park

Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane

Killing Mr. Griffen, by Lois Duncan

King and King, by Linda de Haan

Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D. H. Lawrence.

Life is Funny, by E.R. Frank

Little Black Sambo, byHelen Bannerman.

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov.

Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

Mick Harte Was Here, by Barbara Park

Mommy Laid An Egg, by Babette Cole.

My Brother Sam Is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier

Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs.

Native Son, by Richard Wright.

Nineteen Eighty-four (1984), by George Orwell

Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck

Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes

On My Honor, by Marion Dane Bauer.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey

Ordinary People, by Judith Guest.

Private Parts, by Howard Stern.

Rabbit, Run, by John Updike.

Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor

Running Loose, by Chris Crutcher.

Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz

Sex, by Madonna.

Sex Education, by Jenny Davis.

Shade’s Children, by Garth Nix

Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

Sleeping Beauty Trilogy, by A. N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice).

Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson

So Far From the Bamboo Grove, by Yoko Watkins

Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison

Sons and Lovers, by D. H. Lawrence.

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, by Chris Crutcher

Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Green

That Was Then, This Is Now, by S. E. Hinton.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, byMark Twain.

The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, by George Beard

The Anarchist Cookbook, by William Powell.

The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison

The Boy Who Lost His Face, by Louis Sachar

The Call of the Wild, by J ack London.

The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger

The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier

The Color Purple, by Alice Walker

The Dead Zone, by Stephen King.

The Drowning of Stephan Jones, by Bette Greene.

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler

The Exorcist, by William Peter Blatty.

The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney

The Facts Speak for Themselves, by Brock Cole

The Fighting Ground, by Avi

The Giver, by Lois Lowry

The Goats, by Brock Cole.

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson

The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood

The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende

The Joy of Gay Sex, by Dr. Charles Silverstein

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair.

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini

The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold

The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer.

The New Joy of Gay Sex, by Charles Silverstein and Felice Picano.

The Outsiders, by S. E. Hinton.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

The Pigman, by Paul Zindel.

The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett.

The Rabbit’s Wedding, by Garth Williams.

The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie.

The Sledding Hill, by Chris Crutcher.

The Stupids (series), by Harry Allard

The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway.

The Terrorist, by Caroline B. Cooney

The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien

The Upstairs Room, by Johanna Reiss

The Wish Giver, by Bill Brittain.

The Witches, by Roald Dahl.

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston.

Tiger Eyes, by Judy Blume

To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller.

TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Myracle, Lauren

Ulysses, by James Joyce.

View from the Cherry Tree, by Willo Davis Roberts.

We All Fall Down, by Robert Cormier

Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher

What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones

What’s Happening to My Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons, by Lynda Madaras.

What’s Happening to My Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters, by Lynda Madaras.

When Dad Killed Mom, by Julius Lester

Where Did I Come From?, by Peter Mayle.

Women in Love, by D. H. Lawrence.

Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies, by Nancy Friday.

You Hear Me?, by Betsy Franco

Read Full Post »