Video Game Ban Reviewed by U.S. Supreme Court

In a test of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, the U.S. Supreme Court will make a decision about violent video game sales to children ("Court Evaluates Violent Video Game Case," PBS NewsHour, November 2, 2010). The case involves a 2005 California law never taking effect that "bans the sale or rental of violent video games to anyone under the age of 18" and pits the state against the Entertainment Merchants Association, a video game trade group. Check out the transcript of the PBS NewsHour report at the link above and the YouTube video below of the interview.

Review selected library titles related to video game violence at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library. Call the library at 281-290-3219 to check your PIN if you do not remember it. Use these subject words and phrases to find more in the library catalog:

• video games
  
• video games and teenagers
  
• violence in mass media

Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell - Pantheon Books, 2010.
call number: 794.8 Bis
"Grand Theft Auto IV is both a waste of time and 'the most colossal creative achievement of the last 25 years' according to this scintillating meditation on the promise and discontents of video games. Bissell excels both at intellectual commentary and evocative reportage on the experience of playing games, while serving up engrossing mise-en-scene narratives of the mayhem." - Publishers Weekly review excerpt

Video Games edited by Laurie Willis - Greenhaven Press, 2010.
call number: 794.8 Vid
Includes essays on topic such as "violence in video games reduces violence in the real world" and "video games are not responsible for people's violent actions." - Table of contents excerpt

Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do by Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl K. Olson - Simon & Schuster, 2008.
call number: 302.231 Kut
"Kutner and Olson's own study of some 1,300 middle-school gamers in Pennsylvania and South Carolina, while limited, produced interesting insights. Kutner and Olson advise parents to be involved with their kids' game playing, just as they should be with their other activities. While not profound, the authors, in a calm, evenhanded approach to a problem many parents find frustratingly difficult, address many social fears and make them less scary." - Publishers Weekly review excerpt

Cuba Changes Its Economic Course for Privatization

In a push to privatize businesses, Cuban officials said they will remove some one million state employees from the payroll ("Capitalist Storm Clouds Loom over Havana after State Cuts 1m Jobs," The Guardian, September 14, 2010). Workers in sugar, public health, tourism and agriculture will face the first layoffs followed by civil aviation and the ministries of foreign relations and social services. The unemployed will be encouraged to "form private co-operatives or set up their own small businesses." Still others will be moved toward jobs run by foreign interests.

Review selected library titles related to Cuba, its politics and economy at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library. Call the library at 281-290-3219 to check your PIN if you do not remember it. Use these subject words and phrases to find more in the library catalog:

• Cuba foreign relations
• Cuba politics
• Fidel Castro

Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know by Julia E. Sweig - Oxford University Press, 2009.
call number: 972.91 Swe
"Using a Q&A format, this most recent book in the publisher's "What Everyone Needs To Know" series is more about Cuba's relationship with the United States than it is about Cuba. Sweig (director, Latin American studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Inside the Cuban Revolution) is eminently qualified to write on Cuba, Castro, and the long, shared history with American political, strategic, and economic interests." - Library Journal review excerpt

That Infernal Little Cuban Republic: The United States and the Cuban Revolution by Lars Schoultz - University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
call number: 327.73 Sch
"Schoultz, a University of North Carolina political science professor, offers an exhaustive study of the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba in the 20th and early 21st centuries. . .it's an approachable, deeply satisfying narrative with a clear-eyed and persuasive critique of U.S. policy toward Cuba and, more broadly, of U.S. policy toward any weaker nation that has ever stubbornly asserted its sovereignty." - Publishers Weekly review excerpt

Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana, and Washington by Ann Louise Bardach - Scribner, 2009.
call number: 972.91 Bar
"Bardach doesn't skimp on the politics or the day-to-day obstacles of Cuban civilians living in grinding poverty. Bardach opens the window wide on the "diplomatic train wreck" that is U.S.-Cuban relations, including Miami's exile community, anti-Castro Beltway establishment members, and the history of U.S. attempts to remove Castro from power. . .Bardach's unmatched access to Castro and other major players makes this a thorough account of a long-lived world figure who, admired or reviled, is an undoubtedly fascinating subject." - Publishers Weekly review excerpt

Texas Still Struggles with Obesity

The obesity rate in Texas stands at 29 percent according to a study by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ("Texas Has 13th Highest Rate of Obesity in U.S., Study Says," The Dallas Morning News, June 29, 2010). Mississippi tops the list while Colorado is the at the bottom with the leanest adult population.

Review selected library titles related to obesity at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library. Call the library at 281-290-3219 to check your PIN if you do not remember it. Use these subject words and phrases to find more in the library catalog:

• food habits
  
• food marketing
  
• obesity

Stuffed: An Insider's Look at Who's (Really) Making America Fat by Hank Cardello with Doug Garr - Ecco, 2009.
call number: 616.398 Car
"The obesity epidemic in particular, he argues, is connected to food businesses that control "almost everything the average American eats." Drawing substantially on his professional knowledge, he examines such factors as marketing and product packaging, the recent controversies involving branded school snacks and beverages, the use of trans fat in restaurants, and the various food lobbies." - Publishers Weekly review excerpt

The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David Kessler - Rodale: distributed to the trade by Macmillan, 2009.
call number: 613.2 Kes
"Kessler (former FDA commissioner under presidents Bush and Clinton) describes how, since the 1980s, the food industry, in collusion with the advertising industry, and lifestyle changes have short-circuited the body's self-regulating mechanisms, leaving many at the mercy of reward-driven eating. Through the evidence of research, personal stories (including candid accounts of his own struggles) and examinations of specific foods produced by giant food corporations and restaurant chains, Kessler explains how the desire to eat-as distinct from eating itself-is stimulated in the brain by an almost infinite variety of diabolical combinations of salt, fat and sugar." - Publishers Weekly review excerpt

Body Image, Eating Disorders, and Obesity in Youth: Assessment, Prevention, and Treatment edited by Linda Smolak and J. Kevin Thompson - American Psychological Association, 2009.
call number: 618.928 Bod
"Smolak (psychology, women's and gender studies, Kenyon College) and Thompson (psychology, University of South Florida) present empirical research on the assessment, prevention, and treatment of body image problems, obesity, and eating disorders in children and adolescents." - book summary excerpt

How Should Obesity Be Treated? edited by Stefan Kiesbye - Greenhaven Press, 2009.
call number: 616.398 How
Includes essays such as "A culture obsessed with thinness propagates misconceptions about obesity" and "A tax on high fat foods might modify poor eating habits." - Table of contents excerpt

Liberals Push for Ally in Supreme Court Nominee

Concern is mounting among liberals that President Obama is too focused on naming a "consensus-building moderate" to the U.S. Supreme Court ("Liberals Fear Obama Nominates Moderate to Court" - Associated Press/ABC News, May 4, 2010). Although retiring Justice John Paul Stevens began his high court career in the 1970s as a conservative, he moved solidly to the left. Liberal groups that supported Obama's election do not want to lose that left-leaning ideology after Stevens

Review selected library titles related to the U.S. Supreme Court and constitutional law at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library. Call the library at 281-290-3219 to check your PIN if you do not remember it. Use these subject words and phrases to find more in the library catalog:

• United States Supreme Court selection
  
• constitutional law
  
• judicial power
• judges selection
  

The U.S. Supreme Court edited by Margaret Haerens - Greenhaven, 2010.
call number: 347.732 Uss
The book covers such topics as "There Are Advantages and Disadvantages to Term Limits for U.S. Supreme Court Justices" and "Political Ideology Is Not Relevant for Judicial Nominees" - table of contents excerpt

The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution by Barry Friedman - Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009.
call number: 347.731 Fri
"Friedman (law, NYU Law Sch.) offers an exhaustively researched book on the effect of public opinion on the Supreme Court from the Revolutionary period up to the end of the Rehnquist Court. " - Library Journal review excerpt

The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions edited by Kermit L. Hall and James W. Ely, Jr. - Oxford University Press, 2009.
call number: Reference 342.73 Oxf
Features the "scholarship of 161 field specialists, who summarize the Supreme Court's 440 most significant cases. . . An outstanding single-volume reference." - Library Journal review excerpt

The Supreme Court and the Powers of the American Government by David G. Savage - CQ Press, 2009.
call number: 347.732 Sav
"Using specific cases as illustration, the book engagingly explains complex historical and procedural issues." - Library Journal review excerpt

Arizona Immigration Law Seeks to Limit Racial Profiling

After the Arizona governor signed the immigration law last week that seemed to sanction "legalized racial profiling," lawmakers revised the measure "to require scrutiny only of people who police stop, detain, or arrest." ("Arizona Lawmakers Modify Immigration Law" - Los Angeles Times, April 30, 2010). Legislators also prohibited race from the being the only reason to suspect someone was an illegal alien.

Review selected library titles related to immigration and illegal aliens at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library. Call the library at 281-290-3219 to check your PIN if you do not remember it. Use these subject words and phrases to find more in the library catalog:

• illegal aliens
• immigration
• immigration enforcement
• Mexican-American border region
• border patrols

Immigration edited by Debra A. Miller - Greenhaven/Gale Cengage, 2010.
call number: 325.73 Imm (in processing)
The book covers such topics as "Are Illegal Immigrants Treated Fairly?" and "How Should U.S. Immigration Policy Be Reformed?" - table of contents excerpt

Imaginary lines: Border Enforcement and the Origins of Undocumented Immigration, 1882-1930 by Patrick Ettinger - University of Texas, 2009.
call number: 325.73 Ett
"Historian Patrick Ettinger offers the first comprehensive historical study of evolving border enforcement efforts on American land borders at the turn of the twentieth century. He traces the origins of widespread immigrant smuggling and illicit entry on the northern and southern United States borders at a time when English, Irish, Chinese, Italian, Russian, Lebanese, Japanese, Greek, and, later, Mexican migrants created various "backdoors" into the United States." - book summary excerpt

Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide by Peter Andreas - Cornell University, 2009.
call number: 363.45 And
"The book covers such topics as "Creating the Clandestine Side of the Border Economy and The Escalation of Immigration Control." - table of contents excerpt

Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants by David Bacon - Beacon, 2008.
call number: 331.62 Bac
"The whole process that creates migrants is scarcely considered in the U.S. immigration debate, argues Bacon, who posits that displacement and migration are two perennially necessary ingredients of capitalist growth. In mapping the political economy of migration, with an unwavering eye on the rights and dignity of working people, Bacon offers an invaluable corrective to America's hobbled discourse on immigration and a spur to genuine, creative action." - Publishers Weekly review excerpt

Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives edited by Peter Orner - McSweeney's Books, 2008.
call number: 304.873 Und
"McSweeney's Voices of Witness series continues (following Voices of the Storm and Surviving Justice) with this collection of oral histories from undocumented immigrants . . .Culled from new interviews, the book's 24 subjects come from around the world (Mexico, China, South Africa, Colombia, Cameroon and others), each offering a vivid, personal, often wrenching and occasionally enraging first-person look into the immigrant experience." - Publishers Weekly review excerpt

Tibet Continues to Experience Oppression by Chinese Government

Today marks the commemoration of the Tibetan "abortive 1959 uprising against Chinese rule" and the latest show of force by Chinese police on the streets of Lhasa was meant to prevent any uprising by locals ("Hundreds Held in Pre-Emptive Tibet Crackdown" - Times Online (UK), March 10, 2010). The police made a point to ask for identification from Tibetans and not ethnic Chinese minority residents. An estimated 500 Tibetans were detained by Chinese police in this latest incident. The exiled Dalai Lama stated that he recognizes "those Tibetans still enduring fear and oppression."

Review selected library titles related to Tibet and the Dalai Lama at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library. Call the library at 281-290-3219 to check your PIN if you do not remember it. Use these subject words and phrases to find more in the library catalog:

• Tibet
  
• Dalai Lama
  
• China Tibet relations
  

Tibet edited by Clare Hanrahan - Greenhaven, 2009.
call number: 951.505 Tib
The book covers such topics as "Chinese rule threatens Tibetan Buddhism" and "Tibetan quality of life has improved under Chinese Rule" - table of contents excerpt

Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World by Robert Thurman - Atria Books/Beyond Words, 2008.
call number: 294.392 Thu
"Tibetan scholar Thurman paints a splendid portrait of the Dalai Lama and masterfully elucidates the 50-year-old conflict between Tibet and China in this timely analysis." - Publishers Weekly review excerpt

China's Tibet?: Autonomy or Assimilation by Warren W. Smith, Jr. - Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.
call number: 951.506 Smi
"Smith (Tibetan service, Radio Free Asia) provides a thorough and specialized study of relations between the two entities over the last century. He argues that assimilation is China's goal for Tibet: Tibet is becoming more Chinese and less Tibetan, as demonstrated by the recent mass immigration of Chinese into Tibet and China's dominance of both the government and the economy." - Library Journal review excerpt

10 Questions for the Dalai Lama [videorecording]: One Man's Journey through the Northern Himalayas produced by Rick Ray and Sharon Ray; written, directed and filmed by Rick Ray - Monterey Video, 2007.
call number: DVD Nonfiction 294.365 Ten
"If you had only one hour, what would you ask the Dalai Lama? This is the question that Rick Ray asks, and answers, in this excellent film." - Library Journal review excerpt

Bernanke's 2nd Term Awaiting Senate Vote

Populist backlash from the Senate election in Massachusetts on Tuesday put the current Fed Chairman's prospects for a second term on hold ("Bernanke Confirmation Draws Opposition from Two Democratic Senators" - Washington Post, January 22, 2010). Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) now wants to wait on the vote to keep Bernanke in the job until he can shore up filibuster-proof support among Democrats and Republicans.

Review selected library titles related to the Federal Reserve System and Ben Bernanke at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library. Call the library at 281-290-3219 to check your PIN if you do not remember it. Use these subject words and phrases to find more in the library catalog:

• Ben Bernanke
  
• Alan Greenspan
  
• Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
  
• United States central banks
• United States monetary policy
  

Bernanke's Test: Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, and the Drama of the Central Banker by Johan Van Overtveldt - Agate, 2009.
call number: 332.11 Ove
"Overtveldt's serious examination of how we got into this mess and what the Federal Reserve can do to get us out brings clarity to this period of financial chaos. Highly recommended for all interested readers." - Library Journal review excerpt

End the Fed by Ron Paul - Grand Central, 2009.
call number: 332.11 Pau
"An engaging response to big-government solutions for the financial crisis, this knowledgeable and opinionated look at U.S. economics, from a firebrand public servant, should provoke much thought." - Publishers Weekly review excerpt

Ben Bernanke's Fed: The Federal Reserve after Greenspan by Ethan S. Harris - Harvard Business Press, 2008.
call number: 332.11 Har
"Harris (managing director and chief US economist, Lehman Brothers) is more concerned in assessing the likely performance of the Fed under Bernanke. His discussion of Bernanke's role in the formation of monetary policy theory and practice thus discusses Bernanke's economic views and his early policy activities and assesses their likely impacts. Harris's volume also serves as an introduction to the Federal Reserve System and its role in many facets of the US economy." - Book News, Inc. summary excerpt