"Food for Thought" is a selection of thought provoking resources to foster thinking out of the box. It lists a number of articles, books, videos, and websites to offer inquiry, insight, and reflection on a variety of topics and issues.

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Articles

Changing the Ethics of Warfare - Keith Engelhardt

Web Links

Now with Bill Moyers

The Story of Stuff
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns.

The Center for Public Integrity

The Rolling Thunder Down-Home Democracy Tour

Books

Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue
- Paul Woodruff
Oxford University Press (December 2002)
ISBN: 0195157958
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These United States: Original Essays by Leading American Writers on Their State Within the Union
John Leonard (Introduction), John Straley (Contributor)
Nation Books; (November 2003)
ISBN: 1560252855
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The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future
- Riane Eisler
Harper SanFrancisco; (September 1988)
ISBN: 0062502891
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Women's Reality : An Emerging Female System
- Anne Wilson Schaef
Harper SanFrancisco; 3rd edition (January 1992)
ISBN: 0062507702
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When Society Becomes an Addict
- Anne Wilson Schaef
Harper SanFrancisco; Reprint edition (May 1988)
ISBN: 0062548549
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Vital Lies Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self Deception
- Daniel P. Goleman
Touchstone Books; (May 1996)
ISBN: 0684831074
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Tying Rocks to Clouds: Meetings and Conversations With Wise and Spiritual People
- William Elliott
Image Books; (April 1996)
ISBN: 0385481918
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The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke
by Elizabeth Warren, Amelia Warren Tyagi
Publisher: Basic Books; (September 2, 2003)
ISBN: 0465090826
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A Geography of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or How Every Culture Keeps Time Just a Little Bit Differently
- Robert V. Levine
Basic Books; (September 1998)
ISBN: 0465026427
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Waking Up In Time: Finding Inner Peace In Times of Accelerating Change
- Peter Russell
Origin Press (October 1, 1998)
ISBN: 1579830021
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Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal
- Rachel Naomi Remen
Riverhead Books; (August 1997)
ISBN: 1573226106
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Thieves in High Places: They've Stolen Our Country--And Its Time to Take It Back
- Jim Hightower
Publisher: Viking Press; (August 14, 2003)
ISBN: 0670031410
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My Grandfathers Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging
- Rachel Naomi Remen M.D.
Riverhead Books; (April 10, 2001)
ISBN: 1573228567
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The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community
- David C. Korten
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (April 7, 2006)
ISBN-10: 1887208070
ISBN-13: 978-1887208079
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For Your Own Good : Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence
- Alice Miller
Noonday Press; 3rd edition (September 1990)
ISBN: 0374522693
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The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self
- Alice Miller
Basic Books; Revised and Updated edition (December 1996)
ISBN: 0465016901
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Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence
- Robin Karr-Morse and Meredith S. Wiley
Atlantic Monthy Press (February 1, 1999)
ISBN: 1579830021
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The Underground History of American Education
by John Tayor Gatto
Publisher: Oxford Village Press (2001)
ISBN: 0-945-70004-0
Visit Website
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Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World
- J. McIver Weatherford
Ballantine Books; Reprint edition (January 1990)
ISBN: 0449904962
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The Signs of Our Time: Semiotics the Hidden Messages of Environments Objects and Cultural Images
- Jack Solomon
J. P. Tarcher; 1st Edition edition (October 1988)
ASIN: 0874774799
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Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment
by James D. Houston, Jeanne Houston
Batam Books
ISBN: 0553272586
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Families on the Fault Line
by Lillian B. Rubin
Perennial; (January 1995)
ISBN: 006092229X
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If Aristotle Ran General Motors
by Thomas V. Morris
Henry Holt & Company, Inc.; 1st edition (November 15, 1998)
ISBN: 0805052534
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Leadership is an Art
by Max Depree
Publisher: DTP; Reissue edition (August 10, 1990)
ISBN: 0440503248
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After the New Economy
by Doug Henwood
New Press; (October 1, 2003)
ISBN: 1565847709
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The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and The Next Episode of Capitalism
by Shoshana Zuboff, James Maxmin
Viking Press; (October 10, 2002)
ISBN: 0670887366
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Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else
by David Cay Johnston
Publisher: Portfolio; (December 25, 2003)
ISBN: 1591840198
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The Buying of the President 2004 : Who's Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers--and What They Expect in Return
- Charles Lewis
Publisher: Perennial; (January 6, 2004)
ISBN: 0060548533
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The Essential Crazy Wisdom
- Wes Scoop Nisker
Ten Speed Press; Reprint edition (October 2001)
ISBN: 1580083463
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Thinking With Your Soul: Spiritual Intelligence and Why It Matters
- Richard N. Wolman
Harmony Books; (March 13, 2001)
ISBN: 0609605488
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On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious
- Douglas E. Harding, Gene R. Thursby
Inner Directions; Revised edition (April 2002)
ISBN: 1878019198
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Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind
- Mary Belenky, Blythe Clinchy, Nancy Goldberger, Jill Tarule
Publisher: Basic Books; 10th edition (January 1997)
ISBN: 0465090990
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Myths of Gender: Biological Theories About Women and Men
- Anne Fausto-Sterling
Publisher: Basic Books; 2nd Revision edition (September 1992)
ISBN: 0465047920
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The Lessons of Terror : A History of Warfare Against Civilians
- Caleb Carr
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks; Random Hou edition (March 11, 2003)
ISBN: 0375760741
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No Debate : How the Two Major Parties Secretly Ruin the Presidential Debates
- George Farah
Publisher: Consortium; (April 15, 2004)
ISBN: 1583226303
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Running On Empty: How The Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
- Peter G. Peterson
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; (July 14, 2004)
ISBN: 0374252874
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The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America's Economic Future
- Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Scott Burns
Publisher: The MIT Press; (March 1, 2004)
ISBN: 0262112868
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Fast Food Nation
- Eric Schlosser
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
ISBN: 0395977894
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The RealAge Makeover
- Take years off your looks and add them to your life
- Micheal F. Roizen, M.D.
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0-06-0196282-3
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Plan B: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble
- Lester R. Brown
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393325237
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Videos/ Movies

Pay it Forward
- Director: Mimi Leader, Staring: Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt (2000)
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Bowling for Columbine
- Director: Michael Moore (2002)
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Sicko
- Director: Michael Moore (2007)
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Miscellaneous

Good to the last Twig:
- What's in your Coffee? (or What's not in your Coffee?)

A recent Wall Street Journal article reports of a coffee quality crisis.

Currently the Food and Drug Administration rules essentially permit unripe moldy beans, gravel and other junk to constitute as much as 30% of a cup of "pure" coffee, industry experts say. These standards combined with the shift from the superior "Arabica" beans to the low quality less flavorful "Robusta" beans has led to a quality crisis in the coffee industry.

Considering the fact that coffee production with a few exceptions is also socially disruptive and environmentally destructive one might want to consider where they buy their coffee.

One alternative to the conventional destructive commercial processors is Capulin International; while working to save local villages and maintain natural forests, Capulin more than doubles the incomes and provides more money per pound directly to local villagers and farmers than any other coffee company in America.

Capulin is a hand crafted, traditionally sun dried, hand sorted and hand processed coffee derived from 100% fully mature, red, ripe and delicious Arabica Tipica coffee cherries.

What's NOT in Capulin coffee? NO 30% junk.

What's in Capulin coffee? 100% of the coffee's natural sweetness and flavor!

What rain forests are destroyed to produce it? NONE!

Are all teas created equal? Are there benefits to consuming "White Tea"?

Researchers at the LPI tested four types of white tea for their potential as an Anticarcinagen. "White tea" does not refer to black tea with milk, but rather to a specific form of tea in which the leaves and buds are simply steamed and dried. In this sense, white tea represents the least processed form of tea, since green, oolong and black teas undergo withering before various degrees of oxidation. White tea also contains a higher proportion of buds, which are covered with fine 'silvery' hairs that impart a light white/grey color to the tea. White tea brews to a pale yellow/light red color, and has a slightly sweet flavor with no 'grassy' undertones sometimes associated with green tea. Read more about the research (The Linus Pauling Institute) on white tea. A great source for white tea: Imperial Tea Court

Transformation

"The purpose for which I was born is transformation -- the removal from my consciousness of every limiting concept, emotional block, or thought that seperates me from my true self and therfore from God." - Yogi Amrit Desai

M.K. Gandhi's Talisman

"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test:

Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him.

Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?

Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away."