Weekend reading assignment

In Wal-Mart's Image
Harold Meyerson of the American Prospect looks into the almost Dickensian beginnings of the Wal-Mart empire and how it ties together with how retail business operates within the US economy and our financial collapse through a review of two new books on the subject.

Shotgun Adoption
Kathryn Joyce of the Nation takes a look at the Christian right's community of crisis pregnancy centers and their ties to the Christian right's adoption agencies and finds an almost 'baby mill' type environment filled with lies, coercion, near brainwashing, and mental abuse towards the pregnant women who partake of their services in an attempt to shepherd newborns for large adoption fees. Heartwarming stuff.

An Insider’s Guide to the Large Hadron Collider
Wired Science provides excerpts from the new book Collider by Paul Halpern, a book which looks at the creation and running of the LHC as well as the theory, mechanics, and science of the experimental high-energy physics going on in it. In it are detailed diagrams on how they plan to use the LHC to capture and kill God by opening up a black hole and devouring the Solar System, as well as pictures of the gravestone they had made up for our Creator.

Homeland Security Marked By Waste, Lack of Oversight
I know I'm going to shock you here, but it turns out that not only did Mayberry and Hooterville not need all that money to protect the Sorghum Festival from al Qaeda, but it turns out that the money they did get they wasted. At least that's the conclusion of G.W. Schultz and the Center for Investigative Reporting. I don't know, maybe lawnmowers, big screen TV's, and boxed up, never used security equipment are useful in scaring away Osama.