That's how Wendell Potter introduced himself to a Senate committee in June 2009. He proceed to explain how insurance companies make promises they have no intention of keeping, how they flout regulations designed to protect consumers, and how they make it nearly impossible to understand information that the public needs. Potter quit his high-paid job as head of public relations at a major insurance corporation because he could no longer abide the routine practices of the insurance industry, policies that amounted to a death sentence for thousands of Americans every year. In Deadly Spin, Potter takes readers behind the scenes of the insurance industry to show how a huge chunk of our absurd healthcare expenditures actually bankrolls a propaganda campaign and lobbying effort focused on protecting one thing: profits. With the unique vantage of both a whistleblower and a high-powered former insider, Potter moves beyond the healthcare crisis to show how public relations works, and how it has come to play a massive, often insidious role in our political process-and our lives. This important and timely book tells Potter's remarkable personal story, but its larger goal is to explain how people like Potter, before his change of heart, can get the public to think and act in ways that benefit big corporations-and the Wall Street money managers who own them.

Even in murder, the music lives on. When rising star Paris Secord (aka DJ ParSec) is found dead on her turntables, it sends the local music scene reeling. No one is feeling that grief more than her shunned pre-fame best friend, Kya, and ParSec's chief groupie, Fuse -- two sworn enemies who happened to be the ones who discovered her body. The police have few leads, and when the trail quickly turns cold, the authorities don't seem to be pushing too hard to investigate further. But nobody counted on Paris's deeply loyal fans, ParSec Nation, or the outrage that would drive Fuse and Kya to work together. As ParSec Nation takes to social media and the streets in their crusade for justice, Fuse and Kya start digging into Paris's past, stumbling across a deadly secret. With new info comes new motives. New suspects. And a fandom that will stop at nothing in their obsessive quest for answers, not even murder...

Take your chances with the pop-out fortune spinner in the adventure-filled game book, Frozen Mountain.

An essential guide to finding the truth hidden behind the lies.

Veteran journalist and author of The Commandos Douglas Waller chronicles his rare and intimate experience with the training program for Navy pilots in this “engrossing saga that will likely become an unofficial recruiting tool for naval aviation” (Publishers Weekly). Waller, who was granted permission to participate in the pilots’ grueling training regime, has written an absorbing behind-the-scenes account of the physical and psychological trials endured by the most specialized group of pilots in military history. From his bird’s-eye view in the passenger’s seat, Waller follows pilot trainees through two years of intense preparation. He offers vivid illustrations from the fray: hair-raising aerial dogfights; stomach-swallowing dive-bombing runs; high-speed tactical maneuvers grazing the desert floor; and numerous nerve-twisting aircraft carrier takeoffs and landings. In addition to his own experiences and those of the group of trainees he joins, his research is based on interviews with hundreds of other students and their instructors. Hurtling through the air at death-defying speeds, these pilots-in-training struggle to maintain their composure while withstanding conditions that are designed to challenge them to the very limits of human endurance. Waller’s deftly drawn portraits of the men and women he encounters in this singular culture of elite pilots are as satisfying as his adventure narrative. The pilots, whose grit, determination, and mental agility operate on an elevated threshold, come into sharp focus behind Waller’s keen lens: their aspirations, awe inspiring. Air Warriors combines an examination of the modern Navy, recovering from past sex scandals, with a portrayal of a privileged cadre of men and women whose ambition and commitment coexist within a tightly knit group. Waller is able to capture images of these pilots training, living, and fighting with an acuity and intelligence that are often absent from Hollywood and television treatments of this diverse and fascinating subculture. Air Warriors takes us inside the cockpit and behind closed doors for the real story of the making of a Navy pilot.

Ten anthropologists trace the machinations of war and the effects of violence in capitalist states, from their formation to the present. This collection, the newest volume in the War and Society series, questions the foundations of classical social theory while investigating local and international conflict through the critical and cross-cultural lens of social theory, history, and anthropology. The essays combine to challenge the notion developed by social theorists such as Comte, Spencer, Durkheim, and Engels that war will diminish with the formation and the perpetuation of a capitalist economy and industry. The development of capitalist states, and the nefarious and violent processes which must occur to reproduce capitalism, are rarely realized and then infrequently analyzed. Many western and ethnocentric scholarly representations of war succeed in hiding the deadly developments that occur as a result of capitalist state formation and relations.

This newest volume in the War and Society series questions the foundations of classical social theory while investigating local and international conflict through the critical and cross-cultural lens of social theory, history and anthropology.

Following completion of his medical training and a one-year stint as attending physician on Howard Champion's Surgical Critical Care Service and MedStar Unit at Washington Hospital Center in the District of Columbia, Kenneth Liegner, M.D. returned to Westchester County, home of his Alma Mater, New York Medical College, to start a private practice. Unwittingly, he had 'plunked himself down' in the heart of a burgeoning epidemic of Lyme disease. His patients confronted him with puzzling syndromes that defied 'tidy' formulations of the illness and thrust him in to a Maelstrom of medical controversy. Lyme disease, a new poorly understood disease, emerged hand in hand with the rise 'managed care'. Physicians caring for persons with Lyme disease, loyal to the Hippocratic Oath and serving what they saw as patients' best medical interests, found themselves on a collision course with a new Corporate Medical Ethic dedicated to maximizing profit. One practitioner's work over 25 years is presented here along with correspondence with many principals in the field. Documentational in nature and not written as a narrative, the materials, nonetheless, convey the intensity of the struggle to characterize the nature of Lyme disease and the desperate fight for proper diagnosis and treatment upon the outcome of which patients' very lives depended. The volume includes protocols useful as reference materials for patients and practitioners alike, as well as photographic images of many persons important in the history of Lyme disease. Foreword by Pam Weintraub, Senior Editor of aeon digital magazine and author of award-winning book Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic. Preface by Paul W. Ewald, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Louisville and author of Plague Time.

On January 1, 2014, the most important consumer protections in ObamaCare (the Affordable Care Act) go into effect. With both supporters and opponents of the law debating its merits and its controversial rollout, there is a need for “news-you-can-use” types of resources from credible third parties. Enter Wendell Potter, author of Deadly Spin and former health insurance executive. Obamacare: What's in It for Me? is the authoritative source for Americans needing to know how the law will affect them and their families: How will it affect the millions of Americans who already have coverage through their employers? People who work for small companies that don't offer coverage? The unemployed? People who are in their 20s, 30s and 40s, some of whom may find that coverage costs them more than before? Older Americans not yet eligible for Medicare, many of whom will be able to get much more affordable coverage? Medicare beneficiaries? Low-to moderate income individuals and families? People with pre-existing conditions? Children? As a former insurance industry insider and now a recognized expert on ObamaCare, Wendell Potter is perfectly positioned to explain to a wide audience, hungry for the real story (without the spin), of just what this health care overhaul means for all of us.