I think I've lost track. Right now I'm reading, listening to rather, Dracula. It's a long one, but I forget what I was reading before this one. How am I going to keep my list going if ... well, if I don't keep the fucking thing going?!

Before Dracula it was something simple... Ok, after several seconds of a mind numbing search of the old noggin, I remember. The Zero Game, by... Ummmm, I forget. But it was ok, the book was that is.

Had to wake up the wife, she's been sleeping much too long, according to her that is. Gotta make her some coffee, then it looks like I need to fix an earlier post. Went back to see if I could reconstruct the order of books I've read, and saw some serious flaws in the last post that talked about books.

I received Ron Chernow's new book about Alexander Hamilton the other day. Audio format that is. 72 hours long, it is. "Holy shit!", I thought. I know it's a long book, (I bought the hard cover for my wife) but it still must be a slow reader. I don't think I've ever done anything over 30 hours. Well, that Will Durant book may be...

There's a lot of stuff in this Maher book that's really good, to the point, and expresses things as they truly are. That's why his show didn't last, too many people can't handle straight talk, they don't want it to affect the ratings.

He talks about the diamond industry. He told a woman that he admires "...about the rebels, and how they cut off the arms of children, all so they can control and sell diamonds."

"My friend looked sad and forlorn. And then, in a tiny voice, she asked me:

'Both arms?'"

Sad, huh? Then in a section in which he talks about an American's choice between driving nice cars or saving third world nation babies, he says this...

"Giving new meaning to "Me", Madonna once said: "AIDS is the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century," which I'm sure came as a surprise to a lot of Holocaust and cancer victims--but they didn't have to keep replacing so many gay back-up dancers in the 80s!"

Then he quotes Michael Moore, "Will we ever get to the point where we realize that we'll never be safe as long as the rest of the world is living in poverty so that we can have nice running shoes?"

Good point. Then in another section, "We talk a good game about God and religion and mankind and humility, but in reality it's a lot about God blessing America and really thinking the Jews got it wrong, we're the chosen people. It's like the whole country is Marin County."

I'm sure when he says America, he's talking about the States. He's so fucking right!! Everyone in this country, even the atheists such as myself, have this point of view. Outta sight, outta mind. That's the American way, or the way of the USA, you could say. It's all about us, cause that's the way people are brought up in this country, we are bombarded with it every single day. Just not an hour ago, I talked to my wife's daughter on the phone. She is in graduate school, working for her Master's in Social Work, and telling me about her new job at Sears.

"I realized after just one day on the job, that I now have to deal with people that expect everything handed to them, for more than just a few minutes!" She used to work in fast food at her undergraduate school, and only had to deal with customers for a few minutes each. At Sears, she says, she is expected to cater to their every whim. I told her that these types of customers were the epitome of 'the consumer'.