Idiots Hypocrites Demagogues and More Idiots or Rule Number Two

Idiots, Hypocrites, Demagogues, and More Idiots: Not-So-Great Moments in Modern American Politics

Author: Paul Slansky

Outrageous, offensive, and mind-boggling political blunders of the last fifty years, collected here for the first time.

There’s nothing more enjoyable than when political bigwigs stick their feet in their mouth. Whether discussing foreign policy, the choice of vice-presidential running mate, the State of the Union, or the state of their marriage, the chances to screw up political careers are seemingly endless. In Idiots, Hypocrites, Crimals, and More Idiots, humorist Paul Slansky gathers together some of the most outrageous, hypocritical, self-serving, demagogic, criminal, offensive, surreal, and just plain idiotic moments in American politics over the last fifty years. With deliciously subversive sections entitled “Inaccurate Prognostications,” “Delicious Wallows In Schadenfreude,” “Bizarre Blurts,” and “Freudian Slips,” this book brings together the worst mistakes America’s politicians, policy-makers, and wonk-heads ever had the audacity to commit—sometimes two or three times.

New interesting textbook: Diet for a Small Planet or Rock Star Momma

Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital

Author: Heidi Squier Kraft

When Lieutenant Commander Heidi Kraft's twin son and daughter were fifteen months old, she was deployed to Iraq. A clinical psychologist in the US Navy, Kraft's job was to uncover the wounds of war that a surgeon would never see. She put away thoughts of her children back home, acclimated to the sound of incoming rockets, and learned how to listen to the most traumatic stories a war zone has to offer.
One of the toughest lessons of her deployment was perfectly articulated by the TV show M*A*S*H: "There are two rules of war. Rule number one is that young men die. Rule number two is that doctors can't change rule number one." Some Marines, Kraft realized, and even some of their doctors, would be damaged by war in ways she could not repair. And sometimes, people were repaired in ways she never expected. RULE NUMBER TWO is a powerful firsthand account of providing comfort admidst the chaos of war, and of what it takes to endure.

Fran Mentch - Library Journal

In February 2004, first-time author Kraft was assigned to a combat hospital in the Al-Anbar Province of Iraq, where she provided psychiatric care to navy and marine personnel. In this engaging if narrow memoir of her seven-month deployment, she does not focus on the psychological issues as one would expect; instead, she pays homage to the military, as well as to the families and friends who support it, choosing not to analyze her experience or pass judgments on the nature or the course of the war or the functioning of the military. Readers, for instance, meet a solider who had both of his feet and one hand blown off, and Kraft praises his strength and sense of humor. Autobiographical tidbits also pop up (e.g., Kraft's father was career military, as apparently is her marine husband). The book's main drawback is a lack of analysis and facts, which some readers may find grating. Still, this is a solid complement to the essential reads about women in the military and their role in the Iraq war (e.g., Janis L. Karpinski's One Woman's Army), which would even find an audience among YAs. Recommended for all public and larger undergraduate libraries.