…the Iraq War and the Military – Jam mainstream “embedded” accounts of the “war on terror” and the military appartus by reading Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill. Scahill does an excellent job exposing the hypocrisy of Blackwater and its status as a “security” provider, even though it acts as a mercenary, tragedy profiteering, non-law abiding entity.

…Globalization and Branding – Jam these ideas that are detrimental to countries and peoples near and far by reading No Logo by Naomi Klein. Klein takes a nice stab at lifestyles that multinational companies strive to create through branding. Klein argues that branding and extensive marketing has replaced focus on individual products, cutting worker wages and labor conditions since product manufacturing is constantly being moved overseas at a very low cost to multinationals.

…Corporate America – Jam the wealthy (and their large corporations) who enrich themselves at the average taxpayers expense by reading Free Lunch by David Cay Johnston. Johnston makes a great point that our economic system is mere corporate socialism, quite far from Adam Smith’s free-market theory. Corporations can easily acquire the backing of the government (and the coziness surrounding this), making taxpayers fund “private” projects that they may have absolutely no idea about.