Title: “Balance”

Author: Angie Grace

Rank: 4

Blurb: “Best selling coloring book artist Angie Grace invites you to relax and explore the intricate and exquisite world of stress mending circular whimsical art. Stroke by stroke, shade by shade, tension and worries fade away as you transform Angie’s beautiful black and white lines into your own unique, personal and beautiful keepsake art piece.”

Review: “Coloring is harder as an adult than when you’re young.”

Customers Also Bought: More grownup coloring books than you can imagine.

Footnote: It must be such a joy to exercise other people’s creativity.

Balance [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon Kickback Link]

Title: “Bill O’Reilly’s Legends and Lies: The Real West”

Authors: David Fisher and Bill O’Reilly

Rank: 25

Blurb: “Frontier America was a place where instinct mattered more than education, and courage was necessary for survival. It was a place where luck made a difference and legends were made.”

Review: “If you are going to pretend you’re an expert and write a book about something, at least have enough knowledge about the subject to get the photos right.”

Customers Also Bought: Something by Mike Lee, who continues to amaze us with his ability to live with himself.

Footnote: History is written by the winners, which is why we don’t call it “Occupied America”.

Bill O’Reilly’s Legends and Lies [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon Kickback Link]

Title: “The Road to Character”

Author: David Brooks

Rank: 1

Blurb: “Looking to some of the world’s greatest thinkers and inspiring leaders, Brooks explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built a strong inner character… Dwight Eisenhower organized his life not around impulsive self-expression but considered self-restraint.”

Review: “Any time you extrapolate from specific examples to the general, you’re on dangerous ground.”

Customers Also Bought: “The Thin Green Line: The Money Secrets of the Super Wealthy”

Footnote: Ike’s road to character had a chauffeur.

The Road to Character [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon Kickback Link]

Title: “Our Lost Constitution: The Willful Subversion of America’s Founding Document”

Author: Mike Lee

Rank: 64

Blurb: “The still-unfolding story of America’s Constitution is a history of heroes and villains — the flawed visionaries who inspired and crafted liberty’s safeguards, and the shortsighted opportunists who defied them.”

Review: “I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves both the U.S. and truth.”

Customers Also Bought: “Life After Death: The Evidence” by Dinesh D’Souza

Footnote: Looking in the mirror every morning and seeing Mike Lee must be a real bummer.

Our Lost Constitution [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon Kickback Link]

Title: “Amish Confidential”

Authors: “Lebanon” Levi Stoltzfus and Ellis Henican

Rank: 58

Blurb: “‘Lebanon’ Levi Stoltzfus, star of the hit Discovery Channel reality show Amish Mafia, delivers a sizzling tell-all about Amish life today. From the forbidden joyrides to the senseless shunnings to the colorful family feuds, he shares his frank insider’s view of this fascinating and secretive society.”

Review: “The author points out that their failure to vaccinate their children for polio resulted in 11 cases of polio among the Amish in 1978. Not surprisingly, the tourist trade fell drastically after that.”

Customers Also Bought: “Surviving When Modern Medicine Fails: A definitive guide to essential oils that could save your life during a crisis”

Footnote: We wish all American religious extremists would follow the Amish example by keeping to themselves and not bothering the rest of us.

Amish Confidential [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon Kickback Link]

After her husband Jim Brady was shot and paralyzed in the assassination attempt on Reagan, she became a relentless campaigner for gun control, pissing off millions of gun nuts in the process, and  saving hundreds of thousands of lives with the limits on gun ownership of the Brady Law of 1993 that was enacted as a result of her tireless work.

Our guest colloquists are ABC news leprechaun George Stephanopoulos and Indiana Governor Mike Pence.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I think one of the problems that people have pointed out is that in Indiana, your civil rights laws don’t include sexual orientation as a protected class. And even some of the supporters of the bill who were — who appeared with you when you signed the bill, Eric Miller of Advanced America wrote that, “It will protect those who oppose gay marriage.”

He put up this example. He said, “Christian bakers, florists and photographers should not be punished for refusing to participate in a homosexual marriage.”

So this is a yes or no question.

Is Advance America right when they say a florist in Indiana can now refuse to serve a gay couple without fear of punishment?

Read more »