BobHarris.com - One damn glance

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

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Juan Cole

One damn glance

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Thursday, 09 March 2006

Only light coatings of bloggity goodness for about five more days. Busy. Also, there are days I almost can't look.

Glanced at Google News this morning, and for some reason, the sheer horror of where we are right now really hit me. Here's one random day's news, all of which has now become oddly routine (most of the following, including the first link in every entry, comes straight from the Google News front page):

Iraq: further descent into madness. Mass hangings by the government. Even the U.S. State Department admits to death squads in the Iraqi police your tax dollars are helping support. Saddam's old torture hole Abu Ghraib is still open, years after it should have been shut down. But Bagram, the old Soviet machine shop in Afghanistan where U.S.-held prisoners detained without trial have been tortured with mock executions, will stay open.

Next stop: Iran. With whose army, I have no idea.

Meanwhile, wire reports claim that the Dubai company is bailing on the deal to hand over security at 21 key U.S. ports. Bush's bizarre insistence has been weird enough, but the inability of the media to notice that the deal was not for six ports, as you keep seeing -- the deal was for twenty-one -- is nothing short of amazing. Any reporter who can't get that basic fact right two weeks into the story doesn't deserve a job. Collect 'em all...

The GOP-controlled Congress is ravaging food health and safety labeling. And ethics reform? Are you serious?

In business, the U.S. trade deficit sets yet another new record.

In health, bird flu is about to reach the U.S. Incidentally, despite that fact that scientists have tracked the virus for years and it has the potential to kill many millions of people, the U.S. government has done little to prepare until very recently. A massive Katrina may await us.

In the national pastime, the game's greatest home run hitter has been gorked to the gills on go-juice, something everyone with eyeballs has understood for years. He'll just keep on playing, his teammates will close ranks, and nothing will probably happen. Which is a perfect emblem for the times.

Was it always like this? Was it really?