Rick Perry

Now, do not misunderstand me, America is great. But we are fed up with being over-taxed and over-regulated. We are tired of being told how much salt to put on our food, what kind of cars we can drive, what kinds of guns we can own, what kind of prayers we are allowed to say and where we can say them, what we are allowed to do to elect political candidates, what kind of energy we can use, what doctor we can see. What kind of nation are we becoming? I fear it's the very kind the Colonists fought against. But perhaps most of all, we are fed up because deep down we know how great America has always been, how many great things the people do in spite of their government, and how great the nation can be in the future if government will just get out of the way. Our fight is clear. We must step up and retake the reins of our government from a Washington establishment that has abused our trust. We must empower states to fight for our beliefs, elect only leaders who are on our team, set out to remind our fellow Americans why liberty is guaranteed in the Constitution, and take concrete steps to take back our country. The American people have never sat idle when liberty's trumpet sounds the call to battle -- and today that battle is for the soul of America.

How Rick Perry navigated and shaped Texas politics as the state’s longest serving governor. Rick Perry, the charming rancher, pilot, and politician from West Texas who was governor from 2000 to 2015, is one of the most important but polarizing figures in the state's history. Over the nearly forty years he spent in the political arena, his political instincts served as a radar primed to sense future political opportunities. Hugging the arc of Texas political change, he shifted from a rural, “blue dog” Democrat to one of the most conservative politicians the state had elected up to that time, overseeing the enactment of controversial redistricting, voting, and abortion measures. Yet his evolution was complicated and incomplete, as his stands on such topics as immigration, vaccine requirements, and the use of state funds to attract business ran into opposition from a growing and ever-more conservative wing of the Republican Party in Texas—and the nation. Rick Perry is both a biography of Perry as a politician and a study of the shifts in state politics that took place during his time in office. Demonstrating that Perry ranks among the most consequential governors in Texas history, Brandon Rottinghaus chronicles the profound ways he accumulated power and shaped the governorship.

Rick Perry examines in detail the issues that have led to the attacks on Scouting and the forces in American society that have organized and carried out those attacks. He also discusses the tactics of those seeking to drive God from the public square and the irony that those who attack the Scouts in the name of religious freedom will, if successful, actually suppress freedom of religion. The book also explains the Scouts' refusal to bend to the winds of “political correctness” by allowing activist homosexual scoutmasters.The ramifications of the legal challenges to Scouting are examined, including how the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has responded and—essentially—prevailed. Examining recent polling data, Perry has compared Scouting's program and values with broader trends in values in American society. As you will see, Scouting's values fit closely with those of society as a whole.

Presidential candidates are a breed apart, often propelled by traits that have shaped their careers and have deep roots in personal histories. Often their greatest strength can turn at supernova speed into their greatest weakness. The exact qualities that set them apart from the field trip them up eventually over the long haul of a presidential campaign. Some see former Texas governor Rick Perry as one of the most instinctive retail politicians in the 2016 GOP field. Others see a glib pitchman who must overcome the perception that he’s all flash and little substance. Four years after his famous ‘oops’ incident, can he persuade voters that he’s the real deal? In this series of eBooks, The Washington Post is exploring in-depth all these key characteristics of the leading presidential contenders, the very characteristics that could help make one of them the country’s next commander in chief—or forever sink their presidential ambitions.

Jeri Kirkland built and used an andriod she named ‘LEX’, to help save mankind from extinction through an alien invasion. The mission had been a success. But Lex, the android, had malfunctioned and almost caused Dr. Kirkland’s death. Jarod Anderson, Jeri Kirkland’s husband, had led this team of soldiers. And during their mission, they had to destroy the android. Or so they thought.... Now, Lex was back. And he was angry. Very angry. And in those eight years the android had spent on the planet Mars, it had developed inexplainable powers. And now he was free. Now... he would get his revenge. His revenge on mankind.....

The message of this extraordinary election [in November 2010] is clear enough: the American citizenry has rejected the secular dogma, socialist policies, and machine-driven politics that comprise the Obama agenda. Now, the question is whether President Obama and his Democratic Party will accept the will of the people and change the destructive course upon which they have set this country. . . . [F]irst and foremost, Republicans must fight to dislodge the secular-socialist machine whose methods and goals are described in this book. This machine has driven America so deeply into debt, and has so fundamentally changed the relationship between the American citizenry and our government, that our childrenâ??s future is now imperiled. We cannot assume that after the 2010 election, the machine will simply accept the will of the people. After all, the very purpose of a political machine is to thwart the will of the people.

Winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism A New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book of the Year Time magazine Top Ten Nonfiction Book of 2007 Newsweek Favorite Books of 2007 A Washington Post Book World Best Book of 2007 In this sweeping and dramatic narrative, Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, weaves together the histories of the twentieth century and its music, from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties; from Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies up to the present. Taking readers into the labyrinth of modern style, Ross draws revelatory connections between the century's most influential composers and the wider culture. The Rest Is Noise is an astonishing history of the twentieth century as told through its music.