From Red To Green

When Rudolf Bahro left East Germany in 1979, two years after publication of The Alternative in Eastern Europe, very little was known about the background to this imposing study of the structures and suppressed potential of 'actually existing socialism'. In this series of interviews organized by New Left Review, he systematically discusses his childhood years in Nazi Germany, his political and intellectual development as a loyal - though never unthinking - supporter of the Ulbricht regime, the emergence of his critique of the Soviet Union, and his close identification with the Prague Spring. The invasion of Czechoslovakia had a profound effect on Bahro, who immediately set to work on the massive project that would occupy nearly a decade of his life. A central section of the book addresses the intellectual influences and personal circumstances surrounding its accomplishment, before going on to the significance of his arrest in 1977. Released from prison under a general amnesty, then forced into exile, Bahro has since enthusiastically embraced the Green Party and ecology movement in West Germany, becoming its most forceful advocate of 'industrial disarmament'. In the concluding interviews, he analyses his own response to this new opposition in West Germany, situating it in relation to the new cold war and tensions within the Social Democratic Party on the one hand, and to the traditional perspectives of historical materialism on the other. The fruitful and wide-ranging exchange of ideas in From Red to Green will be of interest to everyone concerned with the pressing social and political problems of the late twentieth century.

On a block dressed up in Red and Green one house shone Blue and White. It's a holiday season that both Isaac, whose family is Jewish, and Teresa, whose family is Christian, have looked forward to for months! They've been counting the days, playing in the snow, making cookies, drawing (Teresa) and writing poems (Isaac). They enjoy all the things they share, as well as the things that make them different. But when Isaac's window is smashed in the middle of the night, it seems like maybe not everyone appreciates "difference." Inspired by a true story, this is a tale of a community that banded together to spread light.

This text provides a perspective on the politics and personalities of post-war Germany's most unstable - and apparently unpredictable - national government to date. The author uses previously unpublished research into Red-Green coalitions in the German Lander in order to understand more clearly the nature of the pressures acting upon Germany's first national coalition between the Social Democrats and the Greens. Charles Lees argues that the Red-Green coalition is best understood as part of an ongoing process of political co-operation between two distinct and often antagonistic parties. Grounded and introduced in the context of recent work on coalition theory and public policy analysis, the book examines the trail of political trial and error that has led the two parties from the mutual suspicion of the early 1980s to being partners in national government today. Drawing on the political history of Red-Green coalitions in Germany, the author explains why Chancellor Schroeder's 1998 election triumph provoked such excitement and why his government's subsequent political travails could have been predicted.

Red Green was recycling material long before the green revolution got underway. Look at the autmobiles he's driven over the years. Many of those were assembled using the same basic method employed for The Green Red Green: by welding together the surviving bits of some old wrecks. In this case, we're talking about the three Red Geen books published long ago by other, inferior publishers: Duct Tape Is Not Enough, a collection of newspaper columns by Red Green's alter-ego Steve Smith on surviving middle age; Red Green Talks Cars; and Red's literary debut The Red Green Book, a souvenir of the TV show. The selection for his best-of pretty much made itself. Out went the Steve Smith columns with once-topical references; out went the material from The Red Green Book that was in the voices of the other characters (he's been carrying those bums for too long) and out went very little from the perenially hilarious Cars. The resulting mass of pieces have been well-shaken into a new mix; re-edited to new levels of sharpness and hilarity, and updated so that, for example, jokes about hairstyles now feature Russell Brand and not Rod Stewart. And the perfectly competent illustrations from the previous books have been replaced by much better, incompetent ones by the author, so that the look of this book very much resembles How to Do Everything.

Former Posadas County Sheriff Bill Gastner, now a New Mexico Livestock Inspector, is enjoying a day on Herb Torrance's ranch - soaking in the sun, counting a small herd of cattle, and thinking about meeting an old friend back in town for lunch. But suddenly a light breeze stirs the dust, a horse spooks, and Bill finds himself ferrying a broken cowpuncher in the back of his SUV, headed out to meet an ambulance. Moments later, Bill's day goes from bad to worse. He is summoned by undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman to investigate an unattended death. Too impatient to wait for Bill, his friend George Payton decided to eat lunch on his own. A couple of bites later, he collapsed - dead of an apparent heart attack. But something isn't right. Then the small herd of cattle Bill had just counted is found wandering down a county highway. But there's no sign of cowpuncher Pat Gabaldon or his boss' $40,000 truck and livestock trailer. Forced into two tangled investigations, Bill faces one of the most complex cases in his 35-year career.

Red Green is celebrated as one of the handiest men in North America. But as well as being a purveyor of inventive practical advice on, for example, making a jetpack from two propane tanks, a hybrid car from recycled golf carts and satellite dishes, and a kiddie ride from a bar stool attached to the agitator of a washing machine, Red Green is also noted for his insights into that most difficult of assembly jobs, human relationships. His previous bestselling tome, How to Do Everything, showed Red dipping his toe into the self-help genre with such items as "How to make dinner more romantic" and "The easy way to raise children." Now Red Green -- a veteran husband (of Bernice), father, soul-searcher, philosopher and observer -- has devoted an entire book to sharing with other battle-weary and confused males all he has learned about the differences between the sexes. Set out in approximately chronological order, from teen dating to the last words of men ("You know, honey, in the last couple of years, you've really packed on the beef"), this is the testosterone owner's manual to every aspect of finding a mate and then learning to deal with her growing disappointment in you. The man who has already shared such morsels as "If you can't be handsome, be handy" and "Quando omni flunkus moritati" ("When all else fails, play dead") here presents a PhD in life-lessons about the most vexing problem facing mankind today, or any day: women.