A takedown of the GOP’s deceitful propaganda machine from the blogger of Salon’s Unclaimed Territory and the author of the New York Times bestsellers How Would a Patriot Act? and A Tragic Legacy. Ever since the cowboy image of Ronald Reagan was sold to Americans, the Republican Party has used the same John Wayne imagery to support its candidates and take elections. We all know how they govern, but the right-wing propaganda machine is very adept at hijacking debate and marketing their candidates as effectively as the Marlboro Man. For example: Myth: The Republican nominee is an upstanding, regular guy who shares the values of the common man. Reality: He divorced his first wife in order to marry a young multimillionaire heiress whose family then funded his political career. Myth: Republicans are strong on defense and will keep us safe. Reality: They prey on fears, and their endless wars make America far less secure. Myth: Republicans are the party of fiscal restraint and small, limited government. Reality: Soaring deficits, unchecked presidential power, and an increasingly invasive surveillance state are par for their course. The first book to dissect the Republican Cult of Personality and leave it openly exposed in its unabashed, shameful depravity, Great American Hypocrites is a deeply necessary call-out to Democrats to attack the GOP with their competitor’s very own weapons. Praise for Great American Hypocrites “Intelligent, insightful.” —Daily Kos “Glenn Greenwald has done it again.” —Alan Colmes “Glenn Greenwald is a treasure.” —BuzzFlash

According to the media, the church is rapidly shrinking, both in numbers and in effectiveness. But the good news is, much of the bad news is wrong. Sociologist Bradley R. E. Wright uncovers what's really happening in the church: evangelicals are more respected by secular culture now than they were ten years ago; divorce rates of Christians are lower than those who aren't affiliated with a religion; young evangelicals are active in the faith. Wright reveals to readers why and how statistics are distorted, and shows that God is still effectively working through his people today.

The Rule of Law in America (and Europe) is a political "story," a narrative, and a performance. It is, in fact, a play and a fiction we have created over centuries, based on choices about what kind of society we desire to inhabit. The Rule of Law is neither a scientific nor a particularly rational invention, but an unfolding performance that has been "playing" in America for several hundred years, albeit with some very serious abuses and blind spots. Hypocrisy & Myth takes the position that the "truth" of the Rule of Law requires a degree of hypocrisy and suspension of disbelief in regard to the ongoing "performance". This in no way renders the system illegitimate. It does, however, make the Rule of Law an easy target for criticism in both theory and application. The Rule of Law is an arational and irrational system based upon an uncomfortable admixture of reasoned ideals, pre-rational beliefs, evidential insights, and mythic stories. Modern and postmodern attacks on these foundations-attacks often made for egalitarian or ostensibly just purposes-have the power to weaken societal commitments to the Rule of Law and the legitimacy of the overall political community. The challenge we face is that the Rule of Law is such a central component of the lives of most citizens of Western nations that we can hardly conceive of our societies without it. Individuals raised within the system have come to incorporate intuitively the basic outlines of the Rule of Law as background rights and entitlements that surround them like the air they breathe. But even given its vital role, we have little idea of what the Rule of Law is, how it works, and the ways in which it is threatened through our neglect, self-interest, and ignorance. As is explored throughout Hypocrisy & Myth, the Rule of Law is simultaneously facilitator, catalyst, and barrier against the abuse of power. It motivates individuals toward ideals of evolving community, including the development of our highest qualities of humanity as individuals. Equally importantly, the Rule of Law serves as a governor on the uses of collective power against members of that community. In this sense, the Rule of Law provides a rallying point from which individuals may morally resist abuses of power by the community. In this latter dimension, the Rule of Law limits the ability of the state to control citizens through the specific exercise of legal power. About the Authors: David Barnhizer is Professor of Law Emeritus at the Cleveland State University College of Law. Daniel Barnhizer is an associate professor of law at Michigan State University College of Law He received a LL.M from Harvard Law School and a J.D. summa cum laude, from the Ohio State University College of Law where he was Articles Editor of the Ohio State Law Journal. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the University of London's Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. He was Senior Advisor to the International Program of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Strategic Consultant to the Government of Mongolia, and has authored more than forty articles and six books. His teaching has included Jurisprudence, Ethics, Trial Advocacy, Strategy, Dispute Resolution, Environmental Law, Human Rights, International Trade and Toxic Torts. Daniel Barnhizer is an associate professor of law at Michigan State University College of Law, where he teaches and writes in the areas of business, contract, securities, and commercial law. Professor Barnhizer maintains a consulting practice in corporate and securities law. Professor Barnhizer worked as a litigator in Washington, D.C., with practice areas focused on corporate governance, securities law, and white collar criminal law. He graduated with honors from Harvard Law School where he was Managing Editor of the Harvard Environmental Law Review.

The evolutionary psychology behind human inconsistency We're all hypocrites. Why? Hypocrisy is the natural state of the human mind. Robert Kurzban shows us that the key to understanding our behavioral inconsistencies lies in understanding the mind's design. The human mind consists of many specialized units designed by the process of evolution by natural selection. While these modules sometimes work together seamlessly, they don't always, resulting in impossibly contradictory beliefs, vacillations between patience and impulsiveness, violations of our supposed moral principles, and overinflated views of ourselves. This modular, evolutionary psychological view of the mind undermines deeply held intuitions about ourselves, as well as a range of scientific theories that require a "self" with consistent beliefs and preferences. Modularity suggests that there is no "I." Instead, each of us is a contentious "we"--a collection of discrete but interacting systems whose constant conflicts shape our interactions with one another and our experience of the world. In clear language, full of wit and rich in examples, Kurzban explains the roots and implications of our inconsistent minds, and why it is perfectly natural to believe that everyone else is a hypocrite.

The United States is obsessed with virginity - from the media to schools to government agencies. This panic is ensuring that young women's ability to be moral agents is absolutely dependent on their sexuality. Jessica Valenti, executive editor of Feministing.com and author of Full Frontal Feminism and Yes Means Yes, addresses this poignant issue in her latest book, The Purity Myth. Valenti argues that the country's intense focus on chastity is extremely damaging to young women. Through in depth analysis of cultural stereotypes and media messages, Valenti reveals that powerful messages - ranging from abstinence curriculum to ''Girls Gone Wild'' commercials - place a young woman's worth entirely on her sexuality. Morals are therefore linked purely to sexual behavior, as opposed to values like honesty, kindness, and altruism. Valenti approaches the topic head-on, shedding light on chastity in a historical context, abstinence-only education, pornography, and public punishments for those who dare to have sex, among other critical issues. She also offers solutions that pave the way for a future without a damaging emphasis on virginity, including a call to rethink male sexuality and reframing the idea of ''losing it.'' With Valenti's usual balance of intelligence and wit, The Purity Myth presents a powerful and revolutionary argument that girls and women, even in this day and age, are overly valued for their sexuality, and that this needs to stop.

"With verve, gusto, and just the right amount of humility, Jeremy Lott argues that hypocrisy isn't as bad as advertised, and that the critics of hypocrisy are often hypocritical themselves. A perfect read and a necessary corrective for this political season." --Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.com "Lott argues convincingly that acts of hypocrisy can be embraced, not dismissed. In this highly-readable book, he makes the counterintuitive suggestion that hypocrisy is a natural element of the human condition." --David Mark, author, Going Dirty: The Art of Negative Campaigning "The popular usage of the term 'hypocrite' is expansive like a shotgun blast, and is often brought in to describe someone we don't like, doing something that we disagree with, involving some sort of perceived contradiction." It's an old familiar routine. Dick accuses Jane of rank hypocrisy, while ignoring his own moral inconsistencies. Jane is outraged by the charge, and fires right back. And author Jeremy Lott? Well he's blowing a wet raspberry at the whole ridiculous spectacle. In Defense of Hypocrisy deconstructs pat prejudices and shallow moralism to probe hypocrisy's real significance, asking: Why there is so much hypocrisy, and so much hatred of it? Why do we behave so inconsistently but then denounce those traits in others? Why are people so often fooled by hypocrites? What if hypocrisy is more than just a necessary evil? In fact, what if hypocrisy is also an engine of moral progress? In Defense of Hypocrisy is part political, part religious, part philosophical, and all honesty. Though the word has long since reached epithet status, Lott beckons the reader to see the real virtue-impoverished agendas behind the accusations and embrace a sturdier, more realistic understanding of a much-maligned vice. The charges have been brought, the jury bought, and the judge clears his throat to hand down the expected judgment: "Hypocrisy is a most damnable offense. . . " "Not so fast," says Jeremy Lott. "I object!" In Defense of Hypocrisy is the case for a mistrial-a thought-provoking, wit-filled, morally-charged, rollicking justification of good people who behave badly. Lott tackles the alleged two-facedness of popular targets from Bill Bennett to Dick Morris to Britney Spears. Far from focusing merely on politics, Lott looks at philosophy, history, theology, and pop culture to give the hypocrites their due. This gutsy exposé of the corrosive uses of hypocrisy accusations will challenge you to open your mind, hang the jury, and decide for yourself: Is hypocrisy really so bad?

A Hard Hitting and Sometimes Humorous Look Into The African-American Community and Why Black People Vote So Overwhelmingly For Democrats. In Myths & Hypocrisy Exposed, The Author Reveals Some Of The Dishonest Schemes and Propoganda Used by So Called "Black Leaders" to Keep African-Americans In Line and Voting Democrat.

As he dives headfirst into the political arena with this entertaining and eye-opening work, Lavallis attempts to explain African Americans' allegiance to the Democratic party.

Like many other southern men, Noel Polk doesn't fit the outside world's stereotype of the southern male. This notable Faulkner critic is a native of the small Mississippi city of Picayune. In his career as an international scholar and traveler and in his role as a teacher and a professor of literature, he has moved beyond his origins while continuing to be nourished by his hometown roots. "I almost invariably see myself depicted in the media as either a beer-drinking, mean-spirited, pickup-driving redneck racist; a julep-sipping, plantation-owning, kind-hearted, benevolent racist; or, at best, a nonracist good ole boy, one of several variations of Forrest Gump, good-hearted and retarded, who makes his way in the modern world not because he is intelligent but because he's--well, good hearted." In Outside the Southern Myth Polk offers an apologia for a huge segment of southern males and communities that don't belong in the media portraits. His town was not antebellum. There were no plantations. No Civil War battles were fought there. It had little racial divisiveness. It was one of the thousands that mushroomed along the railroads as a response to logging and milling industries. It was mainly middle-class, not reactionary or exclusive. While evoking both the pleasures and the problems of his past--band trips, a yearning for cityscapes, religious conversion, awakening to the realities of fundamentalist fervor--Polk offers himself, his family, and his town to exemplify an aspect that is more "American" than "southern" and a tradition that is not mired in the past. As he explores the ways in which his experience of the South defined him, he concludes that his life has been experienced in a parallel universe, not in a time warp. He and many like him exist outside the southern myth.