Indeed, American students lag behind their peers in other nations, but America remains on the leading edge economically, scientifically, technologically, and militarily. The reason for this paradox, explains Barone in this brilliant essay, is that “from ages six to eighteen Americans live mostly in what I call Soft America—the parts of our country where there is little competition and accountability. But from ages eighteen to thirty Americans live mostly in Hard America—the parts of American life subject to competition and accountability.” While Soft America coddles, Hard America plays for keeps. Educators, for example, protect children from the rigors of testing, ban dodgeball, and promote just about any student who shows up. But most adults quickly figure out that how they do depends on what they produce. Barone sweeps readers along, showing how we came to the current divide—for things weren’t always this way. In fact, no part of our society is all Hard or all Soft, and the boundary between Hard America and Soft America often moves back and forth. Barone also shows where America is headed—or should be headed. We don’t want to subject kindergartners to the rigors of the Marine Corps or leave old people uncared for. But Soft America lives off the productivity, creativity, and competence of Hard America, and we have the luxury of keeping part of our society Soft only if we keep most of it Hard.Hard America, Soft America reveals: • How the American situation is unique: In Europe, schooling is competitive and demanding, but adult life is Soft, with generous welfare benefits, short work hours, long vacations, and state pensions• How the American military has reclaimed the Hard goals and programs it abandoned in the Vietnam era• How Hardness drives America’s economy—an economy that businesses and economists nearly destroyed in the 1970s by spurning competition • How America’s schools have failed because they are bastions of Softness—but how they are finally showing signs of Hardening• The benefits of Softness: How government programs like Social Security were necessary in what was a harsh and unforgiving America• Hard America, Soft America is a stunningly original and provocative work of social commentary from one of this country’s most respected political analysts.From the Hardcover edition.

    

    Whose Stuff Is This? Finding Freedom from the Thoughts, Feelings, and Energy of Those Around You is for those who carry energetic burdens that belong to someone else. More than two dozen proven and effective ways to clear your energy field, this guide employs empowering, proactive techniques to manage your own energy. With a chapter on the psychology of empathy by Dr. Caron Goode, this book presents the personal story of how the author learned to psychically protect herself. -Shield yourself from unwanted energy as you develop emotional intelligence -Offer compassion without paying a personal price -Set boundaries and detach from environmental stimuli including the energy of people and entities -Raise your vibration to a level that makes you invisible to lower-vibrating energy A brilliant, much-needed guidebook for children and adults whose gift of empathy can also be their greatest challenge . . . excellent techniques to use this gift of emotional connection in alignment with one's soul's purpose. Devra Ann Jacobs, President, Dancing Word Group LLC A comprehensive book for anyone interested in developing their intuition and psychic abilities. Presented in an easy-to-read manner, Yvonne has created an encyclopedia of knowledge pertaining to the healing arts. Harriette Knight, author of CHAKRA POWER! How to Fire Up Your Energy Centers to Live a Fuller Life This book should be required reading for all human beings as we continue to learn how to navigate our energy bodies while being in a physical body. With thorough research and case examples, the information on setting boundaries is a must-read whether you consider yourself to be an empath or not. Tisha Morris, author of 27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home . . . an extensive library of answers that can help you figure out what's going on while also empowering you to do something about it! Elise Lebeau, M.Sc., Professional Intuitive, Founder of the EmpathCommunity.EliseLebeau.com

    It is the thing that snarls at us when we think about making a change in our lives and stops us developing and achieving our potential. In Taming Tigers Jim Lawless shares his proven and inspirational training programme to help you achieve your dreams by taming the Tigers in your life.Now for the first time, you can learn how to use these highly practical rules to overcome your fears and do things you never thought you could - in both your professional and private life.1.Act boldly today - time is limited2.Re-write your rulebook - challenge it hourly3.Head in the direction of where you want to arrive, every day4.It's all in the mind5.The tools for Taming Tigers are all around you6.There is no safety in numbers7.Do something scary everyday8.Understand and control your time to create change9.Create disciplines - do the basics brilliantly10.Never, never give up!Read case studies from people who have changed their lives by following the rules, and hear about Jim's experience of grabbing his own Tiger by the tail, as he went from a thirty-six-year-old overweight non-riding consultant, to a fully-fledged jockey and UK freediving record holder in 12 months - proof that Taming Tigers works!

    Along the way, you'll explore topics like changing gender roles, sexuality, self-esteem, aggression, personality, and mate selection. It all adds up to a text that will leave you with a deeper, more complex understanding of the nature of culture, its relationship to psychological processes, and the differences and similarities between cultures in our increasingly globalized world.

    The Drive-By Truckers, as they named themselves, grew into one of the best and most consequential rock bands of the twenty-first century, a great live act whose songs deliver the truth and nuance rarely bestowed on Southerners, so often reduced to stereotypes.Where the Devil Don’t Stay tells the band’s unlikely story not chronologically but geographically. Seeing the Truckers’ albums as roadmaps through a landscape that is half-real, half-imagined, their fellow Southerner Stephen Deusner travels to the places the band’s members have lived in and written about. Tracking the band from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia, to the author’s hometown in McNairy County, Tennessee, Deusner explores the Truckers’ complex relationship to the South and the issues of class, race, history, and religion that run through their music. Drawing on new interviews with past and present band members, including Jason Isbell, Where the Devil Don’t Stay is more than the story of a great American band; it’s a reflection on the power of music and how it can frame and shape a larger culture.

     Are you stuck playing in lousy cash games versus lousy opponents? Despite your best efforts, do you manage to lose even at the smallest stakes? It’s time to master small stakes cash games with a world-class poker champion as your guide. Jonathan Little has cashed for more than $6.4 million in live poker tournaments. This two-time World Poker Tour champion knows that to make millions on poker’s biggest stage, you have to start small. In fact, he started with only a $50 bankroll. Through his revolutionary approach, you can finally master the skills it takes to win in cash games. By learning how to crush your small stakes opponents, you’ll be prepared to handle bigger challenges -- and bigger cash outs -- that come with larger buy-in cash games. In Strategies for Beating Small Stakes Poker Cash Games, you’ll discover: - Skills that will instantly improve your poker game - How to stop blaming bad luck and learn the real secret to mastering poker - The pitfalls to avoid that will allow you to crush your mistake-prone peers - The reasons pros make the plays they make and how you can adopt their methods - How to win more money from poker, and much, much more! When you learn to think for yourself and adjust your strategy based on specific opponents, you’ll start to turn your game around. As the author of 11 best-selling poker books, Little can show you exactly how to learn these skills and win much more money in the long term. If you like concise, actionable information you can start using right away, then you’ll love Little’s game-changing poker guide. Buy the book to start cashing out today!

    Up till now, people recovering from other problems were able to get real help—like AA and rehab—while those struggling in the aftermath of traumatic breaks dealt with platitudes and friends insisting they should "get over it already." But now Exaholics Anonymous treats getting over an ex like kicking a chemical habit.   Written by counselor and therapist Dr. Lisa Bobby, Exaholics offers meaningful support and advice to anyone trapped in the obsessive pain of a broken, or dying, attachment. She helps the brokenhearted heal, showing them, on a deep level, how to develop a conceptual framework for their experience, understand the emotional processes at work inside themselves, find the path to recovery, and free themselves of shame, injured ego, and remorse. In-depth case studies of others' journeys will illuminate the way to future happiness.

    When you go to the health club, you notice how buff the woman to the left is and how skinny the woman to the right is. And when you go out, you see the guys flocking to talk with certain women and wonder if your looks stack up to theirs. When you get dressed in the morning, do you worry about whether your jeans are flattering? Do you think about who you are going to see when you decide how to do your hair? When you eat a meal, do you think about those magazine models again? Most women do. And they are buying into a lie. In this book Michelle Graham reveals how easy it is to fall into the trap of viewing your body through the lens of culture rather than through the eyes of God. She helps you understand that these are not the things that God wants you to dwell on. And these are not the true qualities of beauty. As you read this book you will discover that beauty comes in all shapes, sizes and colors, and it cannot be airbrushed or faked. In these pages you will discover the true secrets of a positive body image.

    McCoy, USMCIf you read one book in your lifetime on the warrior culture, this is that book. Active-duty Marine Colonel B. P. McCoy expertly relates his innermost thoughts and feelings, drawing on his mastery of personal leadership. Colonel McCoy understands the intangibles that make up our modern-day warriors, those young Americans on whom we place so much responsibility when we send them into harm's way.The author begins with the institutional design that leads some to believe that because of a manifestation of the American culture in which we're taught to kill from a young age through the use of video games, the task of a warrior would somehow be easily executed, based solely on these inequities. To the contrary, Colonel McCoy points out that the battlefield commander is hampered by the societal digression and the simple fact that young Americans can point a video weapon and kill, never feeling the true effects or suffering associated with actual combat. He explains that our culture is not that of predator, but more of prey. Through examples, he concludes that the American society places grave consequence on the taking of a human life, while we still require our young to bear arms against our enemies and to extinguish life. Only through superb training, conducted by passionate leaders, do our young Americans become moral warriors.Colonel McCoy describes the total cost of combat and the price paid by all who choose to become warriors. By pointing to positive training examples and keying on the effects of situational training—battle drills—conducted prior to and during combat, he successfully trained his Marines and developed the proper habits that would be the difference between life and death during combat. He directed his Marines to become "experts in the application of violence," without sacrificing their humanity. In the book, it became clear that he found the combination that allowed his men to achieve tactical superiority in every aspect.The essence of war is violence and the act of killing legitimate human targets without hesitation. To accomplish this, he instituted meaningful training and used his refined principles as a human being to guide him in the leadership and administration on the moral code that rules the field of battle. He is the perfect example of all that we hold dear in our warrior culture. He loved his men, showed them the right way through his personal example, guided his actions with passion and relayed his feelings to his men completely. He is quick to note his own shortcomings and how he overcame them and was the inspiration to the team that triumphed when all Marines survived the day.Emotionally riveting, The Passion of Command provides inside information into the warrior culture and allows one to grasp the complexities when hardening the mind, body, and spirit for the rigors of combat. Most find it difficult to communicate the human effects of combat to people who have never experienced the harsh realities associated with actually engaging an enemy. Colonel McCoy doesn't have that problem. He has opened the door and let the reader in

    

    The 4th Edition of this AJN Book-of-the-Year award winner has been thoroughly updated to deliver even more resources and tools, plus new DSM-5 content. "Psych Notes is packed with all of the essential content necessary to REVIEW (you should also have expanded knowledge of this content) and pass the ANCC PMHNP certification exam. You will be astonished with the depth and breadth of information contained in this easy to read and use (spiral bound) book. Be sure to access the online information that accompanies this book, too as it contains a grid comparing the changes from DSM-IV and DSM-5!" --Sandra Hannon-Engel, Ph.D., RN, CNS, PMHNP, Assistant Professor, William F. Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, Boston, MA. "It's a pretty good book for both nursing students and practicing RN's. No matter what specialty you're in you'll come across patients that are psychologically unstable and this book gives you a quick and easy reference to your needs. Everything is laid out in simple form and focuses on the most pertinent topics in psych." - Jim Astapan, Amazon.com "Very good source for fast references." - Ileana, Amazon.com "An amazingly complete collection of all that pertains to psych/mental health care. An easy to use resource and a wonderful review." - Camille Grosso, Ph.D., R.N.

    In “Bhagavad Gita for Beginners: The Song of God in Simplified Prose,” author Edward Viljoen uses contemporary, simplified language to bring this inspiring work to life. That which seems to be forcing people to act in selfish--even evil--ways is really the accumulation of desires coming together in a strong, irresistible appetite for self-satisfaction. These desires are rooted in the senses, and sense information can be misleading. More powerful than the senses, though, is the mind. And more powerful than the mind is the will (or intellect), and that which is above it all,--the Real Self, that part of us not deluded by the information of the sense world. The Bhagavad Gita For Beginners: The Song Of God In Simplified Prose will inspire uninitiated readers of the Bhagavad-Gita to delve into the original text, as well as bring a newly-found clarity and perspective to those already familiar with it.

    Whenever you find yourself worrying, procrastinating, or questioning your potential -- FEAR is getting the best of you.Specifically, there are seven common fears you must learn to defeat if you want to live a happy and successful life:1) The fear of what other people think.2) The fear of change.3) The fear of making the wrong decision.4) The fear of missing out on something better.5) The fear of not being good enough.6) The fear of failure being permanent.7) The fear of being "due" for a setback.Every major worry and self-destructive thought is rooted in one of these seven fears.In this inspirational fable, Mickey McGavin is a pro boxer struggling to overcome the seven fears that are holding him back--in the ring and in life. With the help of a former world champion who becomes his trainer and mentor, McGavin learns he must defeat the fears in his mind before he can defeat his opponents in the ring.Boxing is the metaphor for life in this story, but the techniques used for defeating fear are universal.No matter your goal, FEAR is your ultimate opponent and this book will show you how to defeat the fears that hold you back from living the life you were born to live.Read this life-changing book and discover why victory -- in sports, in business, and in life -- always favors the fearless.

    The book is written by JD (James David by author's full name) Vance and in it the author tries to describe the overall life and struggles of people in post-industrial time in the United States. This book deals with the problems of white working-class and the book is not just some book where the author tries to describe lives of ordinary white people. The book is actually a memento and a message to the readers; in it Vance describes his life and his starts, especially growing up while being poor in Ohio. We can find out about this when we find out that Vance's family is of Scottish-Irish descent and that his ancestors have longer history of poverty and hard work that they need to endure in order to survive the hard times that were at hand. We also find out that since the 18th century many Scottish-Irish people were working as plantation workers, as miners and/or as millworkers. Because these people worked only the hardest jobs that hardly anyone else would take many people belittled them. Words like 'white trash, redneck' and/or 'hillbilly' were unfortunately a common everyday word for those people. Hillbilly Elegy is a fascinating work, not because it was written based on a true story but because it was written from a man who lived 'through' his story. The fact that the entire book contains a message is, of course, welcoming plus and something we want from literature of this genre. Here Is A Preview Of What You Will Get: In Hillbilly Elegy, you will get a summarized version of the book.In Hillbilly Elegy, you will find the book analyzed to further strengthen your knowledge.In Hillbilly Elegy, you will get some fun multiple choice quizzes, along with answers to help you learn about the book.Get a copy, and learn everything about Hillbilly Elegy.