No study of Black people in America can be complete without considering how openly discriminatory tax laws helped establish a racial caste system in the United States, how they were designed to exclude blacks from lucrative markets and the voting franchise, and how tax laws extracted and redistributed vast sums of black wealth. Not only was slavery nearly a 100% tax on black labor, so too was Jim Crow apartheid and tax laws specified the peculiar institution as “negro slavery.” The first i...

Dementia is a devastating disorder which may dramatically interfere with decision-making abilities. Effort has focused on trying to determine when a person is no longer capable of making particular decisions or is globally incompetent. However, much less focus has been placed on understanding how the capacity to make decisions influences one's view of oneself, one's world and one's treatment by others. This book aims to broaden discussion around this issue by moving beyond a focus on notio...

In the cold vacuum of the Up-and-Out, the only thing faster than death is a cat's instinct.Step inside the 'Fighting Room' of a planoforming ship, where telepaths known as Pinlighters serve as the thin line between survival and absolute madness. Humanity has reached the stars, but the stars have teeth. Out in the interstellar void lurk the 'Dragons'—malevolent, light-hating entities that devour the human mind in a fraction of a second. To fight them, mankind has tu...

“A thriller in a class by itself**—**brilliant and scary!” **—**Terry McMillanRead the page-turning, provocative thriller that will forever change the way you think about slavery and its legacy in today’s America.Martin Grey, a smart, talented black lawyer working out of a storefront in Queens, becomes friendly with a group of some of the most powerful, wealthy, and esteemed black men in America. He’s dazzl...

What if we told you that you can eat anything you like and lose weight?Well, you probably wouldn't believe us, would you? And if you did believe us, you would ask HOW?We asked the same question. After both struggling with our weight and the effects of crash dieting, we knew there had to be a better way to shed the pounds. That's how we developed the #itsfine plan. With a unique approach to portion control and by debunking the many myths around fad diets, it...

This practical book provides everything you need to know about the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). This open technology for real-time communication is used in many diverse applications such as instant messaging, Voice over IP, real-time collaboration, social networking, microblogging, lightweight middleware, cloud computing, and more.XMPP: The Definitive Guide walks you through the thought processes and design decisions involved in building a complete XM...

The newest book by the acclaimed author of Standard Deviations takes on luck, and all the mischief the idea of luck can cause in our lives.In Israel, pilot trainees who were praised for doing well subsequently performed worse, while trainees who were yelled at for doing poorly performed better. It is an empirical fact that highly intelligent women tend to marry men who are less intelligent. Students who get the highest scores in third grade generally get lower scores in fourth grad...

In this culmination of his highly acclaimed Cultural Liturgies project, James K. A. Smith examines politics through the lens of liturgy. What if, he asks, citizens are not only thinkers or believers but also lovers? Smith explores how our analysis of political institutions would look different if we viewed them as incubators of love-shaping practices—not merely governing us but forming what we love. How would our political engagement change if we weren't simply looking for permission to ex...

Venture beyond the known universe and meet Saturn, the Guardian of the Threshold. This unique guide fuses the disciplined methods of Saturnian Gnosis with the Setian philosophy of Xeper ("to come into being"). Structured as a complete initiatory formula of Theory, Practice, and Art, it offers a demanding path of ritual, meditation, and creative work. Explore the mystery of the Trapezoid, awaken your true, non-natural Self—the Daimonion—and become the sole architect of your own evolution. W...

From a psychotherapist and the New York Times bestselling author of Monkey Mind, a thoughtful, deeply personal exploration of our most difficult emotions, arguing that they are not obstacles to overcome but essential messengers that can lead us toward wisdom and wholeness.What if the emotions we fight hardest against—anger, shame, envy, regret, jealousy, annoyance, despair—are not enemies to be vanquished but essential guides to self-knowledge?

This story of three men's work helping traumatized kids in one of America’s most underserved cities reveals how mindfulness tools can help children and communities not only survive but thriveIn this inspiring book, founders of The Holistic Life Foundation Ali Smith, Atman Smith, and Andres Gonzalez describe how they have spent the past twenty years teaching yoga, meditation, and breathwork to thousands of at-risk kids in Baltimore schools helping them to develop de...

This story of three men's work helping traumatized kids in one of America’s most underserved cities reveals how mindfulness tools can help children and communities not only survive but thriveIn this inspiring book, founders of The Holistic Life Foundation Ali Smith, Atman Smith, and Andres Gonzalez describe how they have spent the past twenty years teaching yoga, meditation, and breathwork to thousands of at-risk kids in Baltimore schools helping them to develop de...