Books and Airtran

First, let me declare that Airtran is the greatest discount airline ever. Granted, I've never flown anything but Airtran, but why would I? I've flown Airtran probably 12-20 times, and I've never had a bad experience, a flight delay, or suffered a catastrophic crash resulting in my death or permanent disfiguration. Granted, with the exception of some middle-aged jewelry retailer-women who mistakenly operated under the assumption that I was somebody, I've never sat next to anyone attractive or interesting, but c'mon, I just found out I could fly from Newport News, VA to West Palm Beach, FL for $49 each way. Are you serious? Count me in.
Secondly, I went on a reading binge this weekend and knocked out The Interrogators, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, and a large portion of Fermat's Enigma. A few reactions:

1) The Interrogators- Awesome. A fascinating insider account of the intelligence battle between US Forces and those picked up in raids and battle during the invasion of Afghanistan, and incredibly descriptive when it comes to the method used by Army intelligence to break prisoners without crossing obvious moral barriers. This book got me so pumped up about America that I started a USA chant while picking up some weird chicken stuff at the Chinese restaurant on the way back to my house. It didn't take.

2) Confessions of an Economic Hitman- This book should come with a warning, and it should read "Contents of prologue may make book appear more interesting than it really is." Basically, the point John Perkins tries to make is this: The US Government, which is both controlled by and acts through US Corporations, actively solicits loans to developing countries through organizations like the World Bank. These loans are then used to pay American companies to develop infrastructure, effectively channeling the money back out of the country and crippling its economy with debt payments. As a result, these countries are then forced into doing whatever America wants, Perkins calls it- "exacting our pound of flesh." Actually, I think it's a legitimate argument, however, Perkins is short on details, long on moralizing, and incredibly tedious. For someone who brags, "writing comes easy to me", his book is about as literary as a Dean Koontz novel, and fails to hold my attention as well as, let's say, The Lusty Argonian Maid. If anybody is familiar with a book on the same topic, with more substantiation, let me know. I'd like to be able to fall back on more than just John Perkin's self-righteousness to support an anti-corporate position.

3) Fermat's Enigma- Simon Singh's account of the solving of Fermat's Last Theorem. At least, I think they solved it in the end, I don't know, I didn't finish it, I just stopped caring. I'm not sure when this happened, but I think sometime after the start of Dr. Carlson's Calc Two class, but before my 38% on the final, my brain learned to just shut off . A quick equation highlighting this problem- (|Numbers + Letters|)/relative complexity= amount of interest. I think this would be better phrased as a limit problem, and it somehow approaches zero, logarithmically, or something, I don't know, I just blacked out writing that paragraph. Redness, I'll be happy to mail this back to you, I only ask that you mail me back a few hours of my life in return.

Anyway, fresh off the Amazon train is The 48 Laws of Power, The 33 Strategies of War, War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning (I need to finish that up), The Island of the Day Before (thanks to EAP for reminding me that there is an Eco novel that I haven't read yet), and The Name of the Rose, and Gates of Fire (which even if I never reread them (unlikely), deserve a spot in the Pantheon of my future bookshelf. So, in conclusion, there are two peaches sitting on the counter at work, and just looking at them and imagining biting into that weird fuzz is enough to make my skin crawl...