BobHarris.com - London: Massive War Protest

Books! Actual books!

"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... his comic timing never fails"

-- The Wall Street Journal

"Pulls you in like a good sports story"

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Endearingly frank... jubilant... lighthearted and fast-paced"

-- New York Newsday

"A surprisingly touching memoir"

-- Entertainment Weekly

"Snappy and informative"

-- Associated Press

"Effortlessly funny and informative... tender, human, and very wise... A must for anyone who loves Jeopardy!, or has ever seen it, or is breathing."

-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."

-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life

"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."

-- Orson Scott Card, 4-time Hugo Award winner, author of Ender's Game

"Funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"

-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All

"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew Bob was a great guy and a fantastic Jeopardy! player. Now I've found that he's also a wonderful writer. I think I'm starting to hate him."

-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”

— Boston Globe

"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."

— New York Observer

"Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”

— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs

“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”

— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."

— Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review

Main

CDI

London: Massive War Protest

Tag it now -

Tuesday, 19 October 2004

Between 20,000 and 100,000 people rallied in Trafalgar Square yesterday.

Stunning how little I've seen about it in the U.S. press.

Reminds me: for those who came in late, I've been traveling a lot this last year, so far to 13 countries on five continents. (Intending to have a whole "Travel" section in the left menu soon with articles and pictures, btw.) And the moment you leave these borders, people everywhere I've been are opposed to what the U.S. is doing in Iraq. It's not a left-right issue. We are becoming pariahs. Also, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib haven't disappeared from the world's consciousness the way it has here. These are serious, continuing, ongoing, terrifying concerns.

It would be outrageous to pretend to speak on behalf of about six billion people, of whom I have met vanishingly few, and whose languages I do not mostly speak. But I can tell you that I've met stunning unanimity, from South Africa to Thailand to New Zealand to Turkey to the Cook Islands and onward. All I can tell you is what I've heard with my own ears.

From the outside, as far as I can tell, the election we're about to have isn't about Bush or Kerry. It's really about whether you and I are OK with illegal war and bombing civilians and torturing people and indefinite detention.

If we say no, then a lot of folks are willing to put it all on Bush and give us a second chance.

But if we say yes to all this... there will come a whirlwind.