The Canadian Oil Boom

This is and interesting story that was mentioned in an editorial in the Bemidji Pioneer. Although the pipeline has been a great thing for Bemidji's business I have to ask if it is worth the environmental cost. Do you think everyone that was responsible for allowing the pipeline to come through our area was aware of the environmental consequences?

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/canadian-oil-sands/kunzig-text/2

Last meeting

Another lively discussion was had at the last meeting.

Here is a great article about gas and oil that was sent to me by Gina. http://www.truthout.org/10220910. Thanks Gina for another great side-subject.

We also have a rough schedule the upcoming not month...but year! Thanks for everyone's suggestions. We will have a great schedule coming up and if you haven't made it to Michael Moore's new expose' on Wall Street then stay posted because as soon as it comes out on video we are going to have a public showing. Hopefully the movie companies won't get too upset, you know copyrights and all.

We will now be meeting regularly on
the SECOND Thursday of every month at 6:30pm in the Minnesota Energy mtg room

Our next meeting will be: Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Our reading selection (suggested by Vince) will be: The Places In Between by
Rory Stewart, 2009.

In 2002 Stewart traveled the entire county of Afghanistan by foot (a 6000 mile
trek including some time in Pakistan, India, and Nepal). He is the director of
the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University, a former British
soldier, and foreign service officer. Stewart believes in order to talk about
a country you need to spend time in their villages. He does not agree with the
proposed US goals of increasing troops in Afghanistan. To read his most recent
interview see the September 25, 2009 Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.org.

Thanks again Gina for letting me plagiarize your email.

Update on Next Meeting

Sorry I kind of fell off the face of the earth. I was in the Boundary Waters and things got changed just as I was leaving. So sorry, but I needed a solid week away from my normal routine. So the next meeting will be Thursday October 15th at 6:30 pm. Please come with some ideas for the upcoming year. The meeting will be located at the Minnesota Energy Building.

Date and Time Correction: September 17th and 6:30

We are meeting on the 17th of September, not the 10th or 20th as previously stated. We are also meeting a little early, so come at 6:30 so we can set a schedule for books to read for the upcoming year. Feel free to vote for your favorite subject that you want discussed, come to the meeting with your book and movie ideas, or better yet post some of your ideas on the blog.

The Next Book

I predict that the next book of our most intriguing book club will be The Fourth Turning. The authors of this book are predicting the next phase of our great nation, so I am predicting that we will read it, be frustrated, entertained, and informed by the authors' views of our historical cycles. Will we survive and thrive, or is this the beginning of the end? Only time will tell, but these authors seem to have the answers. What are the answers....well, you'll just have to read the book. Get it read by the 10th of September, and if you read all the chapters you will get a special prize. Then show up for discussion at 7:00pm at the same place-The Minnesota Energy Building. For extra credit read The Wheel of Time fantasy series (all 10,000 pages) written by Robert Jordan, because it sounds kind of like the same idea, but I'm assuming that The Fourth Turning has less magic, swords, and Darkfriends.

Review from Amazon.com
The Fourth Turning continues the project of mapping out the place of generations in history, a project begun in the authors' earlier books Generations and 13th Gen. If millennial fever takes hold, The Fourth Turning may be only the first of an impending wave of pseudo-scholarly tracts prognosticating future (but imminent!) doom as we collectively close the books on this millennium. Those expecting a serious or dry tome might be put off by the authors' taste for bulleted text and catchy phrasings, but can you blame these guys for wanting to make impending peril as exciting as possible? After all, they think we are headed toward "events on par with the Revolution, the Civil War, or World War II" in the next 20 years. Mixing solid understanding of present generational divisions, with some fairly broad generalizations, Strauss and Howe promise to move from history to prophecy.

Synopsis from Wikipedia
The Fourth Turning (1997) is the third book by William Strauss and Neil Howe. It expands the theory they presented in their first book Generations by examining the generations in Anglo-American history since the War of the Roses (1459-1487). It classifies every generation into an archetype explaining the function, motivation and course of each. The second half of the book specifically looks at the five most recent generations (G.I., Silent, Boomers, 13th, and Millennial).[2]

Turnings last about 20 years and always arrive in the same order. Four of them make up the cycle of history, which is about the length of a long human life. The first turning is a High, a period of confident expansion as a new order becomes established after the old has been dismantled. Next comes an Awakening, a time of rebellion against the now-established order, when spiritual exploration becomes the norm. Then comes an Unraveling, an increasingly troubled era of strong individualism that surmounts increasingly fragmented institutions. Last comes the Fourth Turning, an era of upheaval, a Crisis in which society redefines its very nature and purpose.

Discussion on US foreign policy with Israel

Last month we had an excellent discussion revolving around the USS Liberty.

Just a reminder to everyone. The next meeting is coming up fast--Thursday, April 16th. Although you can't tell by the weather, another month has passed, and that means that we will be talking about our book of the month! Actually this time you have the choice of two books. Assault on the Liberty by James M. Ennes Jr, and Operation Cyanide by Peter Hounam (these two books accompany the film Dead in the Water that we watched)

Another suggestion is The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M.Walt.

If you won't have time to read any of these don't hesitate to stop by. All that we ask is that you bring your open mind. Same time and location as last time. Hope to see some new faces. Start thinking of some ideas for our next month's meeting as well.

Coming up!

For the next two months JUSTbooks will be exploring the special relationship
between the USA and Israel.

On Thursday, March 12th at 7 pm we will begin with a piece of little known - yet
controversial - history, by viewing the film...

Dead in the Water - The Sinking of the USS Liberty, produced by the BBC.
(Suggested by Vince and Bill)

Summary: During the Six Day War (Israel/Egypt 1967), Israel attacked and nearly
sank the USS Liberty (Naval intelligence
gathering ship) belonging to its closest ally, the USA.  For more than 30 years
many people have disbelieved the official
explanation of a 'tragic accident'.  Did the LBJ administration conspire with
Israel in a cover-up?

In April we will discuss the accompanying books:

Assault on the Liberty by James M. Ennes Jr., and

Operation Cyanide: How the Bombing of the USS Liberty Nearly Caused World War
III by Peter Hounam

We should have ample time at these two meetings to expand our discussion beyond
this incident to present day as well.
Feel free to read/share/suggest other books/articles on this subject matter.
Don had suggested Jimmy Carter's books "We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land" and
"Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid",
and my suggestion is "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy" by John J.
Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt.

Thank you Gina for letting us know the upcoming schedule and putting this post together!

JUST books meets on the first or second Thursday of each month at the MN Energy Center
located at 301 2nd Street NW, use SW entrance.