More than fifty years after the civil rights movement, there are still glaring racial inequities all across the United States. In Rich Thanks to Racism, Jim Freeman, one of the country's leading civil rights lawyers, explains why as he reveals the hidden strategy behind systemic racism. He details how the driving force behind the public policies that continue to devastate communities of color across the United States is a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals who profit mightily from racial inequality.In this groundbreaking examination of "strategic racism," Freeman carefully dissects the cruel and deeply harmful policies within the education, criminal justice, and immigration systems to discover their origins and why they persist. He uncovers billions of dollars in aligned investments by Bill Gates, Charles Koch, Mark Zuckerberg, and a handful of other billionaires that are dismantling public school systems across the United States. He exposes how the greed of prominent US corporations and Wall Street banks was instrumental in creating the world's largest prison population and our most extreme anti-immigrant policies. Freeman also demonstrates how these "racism profiteers" prevent flagrant injustices from being addressed by pitting white communities against communities of color, obscuring the fact that the struggles faced by white people are deeply connected with those faced by people of color.Rich Thanks to Racism is an invaluable road map for all those who recognize that the key to unlocking the United States' full potential is for more people of all races and ethnicities to prioritize racial justice.

The modern Middle East often seems like a web of problems none of which has proven more intractable over the last half century than the Israeli-Arab conflict. One of the core issues is the Israeli claim to ownership of modern-day real estate based on ancient stories that have been enshrined in scripture, promoted by politicians, and buttressed by Hollywood. In this book two revisionist thinkers expose what they argue are the tenuous underpinnings of these claims. Was the Exodus of scripture actually a Hebrew exodus. Was the Moses depicted by Charlton Heston actually a Hebrew leader? Or were they echoes of a much earlier exodus of Hyksos, the invasive people to first conquer and reign over Egyptians? The authors argue that neither Moses nor the Hebrews were in Egypt until around 1000 BCE -- 500 years after the earlier Exodus is known to have taken place. They go on to sift through research of an Hyksos evacuation of Egypt led by an Eastern leader who is far different than the Moses with whom we are familiar.

Movies, radio, television and more recently the internet each brought their own revolutions in communication, lifestyles and society. Current scientific research quietly hints at the next wave – the blending of computers with the human mind itself. Forget avatars and 3-D games, we''re on the threshold of chips in our brains that will enable us to experience the lives of the rich and famous. It''s coming, but are we ready? EVOKE is set in the very near future – where politicians still lust for power, people drive ordinary cars to ordinary work and eat fast-food. What''s different is EVOKE – a newly available network providing not merely information or virtual reality, but a chance to become someone else for a while. With EVOKE we can finally be in an exotic relationship, win the Masters Golf Tournament, walk the catwalk in Paris or dine at the Four Seasons. If we can be anyone and do anything online, who are we in our real lives? More importantly – who controls what we experience and distributes access to the first chips?The characters provide an intimate look at social and political change through the eyes of people accessing EVOKE, as well as those on the outside – from the politicians who control it, to businessmen hot after its commercial potential, to ordinary people who struggle for meaning in their lives while facing unlimited pleasure.It''s a chillingly realistic look into our future – our near future. Are you ready? Are any of us?

About the SeriesThe Dark Side of the Moon series is a chronological collection of observations on social, political and occasionally even personal subjects.Jim Freeman''s views of the American scene are salted with irony and lightly peppered by humor, a relief from the unending rants of the far left or right and reasonably balanced by common sense. They''re here as Freeman wrote and published them at the time, unedited and without the benefit of hindsight.These books are food for thought and Freeman encourages readers to cut into them - use and abuse these books, dog-ear the pages, mark-up with highlighter and write in the margins. Make them relevant, make them yours to refer to content that particularly pleased or infuriated you. Each book in the series is in some ways a time-machine that focuses the blur of events and gives them context. Mark Twain said "Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody."Jim Freeman looks at that dark side and strives to shine light on it.About the 2004-2005 Book (Volume 2 of the 5 Volume Series) Volume 2 of The Dark Side of the Moon moves from Howard Dean''s ''excellent chance of becoming the next president of the United States'' to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the evisceration of Medicaid and the exposure of the Jack Abramoff scandal.But what else was going on while Howard Dean opened the door and stood aside for John Kerry? All the frantic rhetoric of a presidential election year played out against two wars not going all that well, super-charged profits driven by rocket-fueled debt and the beginnings, the first itchiness around the American collar that all was not well deep down in the state of the union. What was on the national mind as Hurricane Katrina formed in the Gulf? Volume 2 of The Dark Side of the Moon frames the state of national disconnection, observing America within the context of those events.

Ceilia Lybrand has it all, a design career that''s bringing her money and recognition, along with a live-in stockbroker jock boyfriend. Life is good, or so it would seem. The chance finding of a company document on the copy machine sets her on a path of both self and career assessment that turns her life upside down, bringing her face to face with who she is and testing her willingness to put it all on the line.Support is half a world away in an almost accidental and continuing e-mail exchange with someone she''s never met, close as her keyboard and as distant as a voice in the night. Letters from Ceilia touches on issues successful women would rather avoid looking at, much less confront. Like most career women on the rise, Ceilia approaches her life and work with female emotions, despite the fact that she lives in a world largely defined and run by men.Through her correspondence, we get an intimate look at Celia''s psyche. Searching for strengths and struggling to survive, she puts her relationship and career at risk.But is it worth it?

About the SeriesThe Dark Side of the Moon series is a chronological collection of observations on social, political and occasionally even personal subjects.Jim Freeman''s views of the American scene are salted with irony and lightly peppered by humor, a relief from the unending rants of the far left or far right and reasonably balanced by common sense. They''re here as Freeman wrote and published them at the time, unedited and without the benefit of hindsight.These books are food for thought and Freeman encourages readers to cut into them - use and abuse these books, dog-ear the pages, mark up with highlighter and write in the margins. Make them relevant, make them yours to refer to content that particularly pleased or infuriated you.The Dark Side of the Moon is a time-machine that brings the blur of events into focus and context. Mark Twain said "Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody." Jim Freeman uncovers that dark side and strives to shine light on it.About the 2006 Book (Volume 3 of the 5 Volume Series) 2006 was possibly the most pivotal year of the decade, with the wheels apparently coming off American military and civil society on a dizzying daily basis. This third segment of The Dark Side of the Moon series begins with the Senate''s consideration of Sam Alito''s fitness to join the Supreme Court and winds up, some 460 pages later with the Exxon''s Valdez oil spill lawsuit limping to completion after a 12 year swordfight. What else was going on, while America twisted in the wind of wars going badly and the fear-factor leading us away from common sense? Quite a lot, actually and The Dark Side of the Moon brings the year back into focus and sequence, (I hope) with an appropriate sense of humor and irony. Pivotal no doubt, but 2006 surely must also be counted among the most ironic years of the weird decade to which it belongs.

The Island takes place on an ageless 800 acre duck hunting club on the Illinois River, land where the Illini Indian Confederation dominated for centuries before the white man came to North America. One can feel their presence. Hank Edson owns the island and it''s more than a playground for this Chicago contractor, it''s built with his sweat and dreams, the very essence of Hank''s powerful life.But the island comes with its own legacy, the old time market hunter and local redneck, Gart Haggard. Not a young man, Gart''s life-long reputation is that of an outlaw poacher, hot-headed and dangerous one moment, soft-spoken and generous the next. In his unsettled mind, the island is his by some strange birthright and the only way to achieve his goal is to drive Hank off this land. Fire is and always has been his weapon.A chilling story of two men in deadly conflict, the one honorable and immovable, the other arrogant and unstoppable, their confrontation growing as slowly and inexorably as Spanish moss. Hank is not a man to be driven off anything, particularly this ancient and mystic land that''s so much a part of his soul. And thus the story unfolds.Set in a last best place where hunting ducks is inseparable from the character of the land, anyone who has sat out a cold, wet morning in a duck blind will be drawn to The Island.

On March 20, 2003 the United States and Great Britain attacked Iraq, staying for 8 years, 273 days and leaving behind 150,000 Iraqi civilians dead and another half-million collateral victims. The cost to the US economy alone is estimated to $3 trillion, three thousand billion we didn''t have to begin with and failed to tax ourselves for, no one yet knowing the true cost.Dick Cheney''s Fingerprints begins 533 days before the invasion and points out how this war came to be, how it was perceived and reported by the media and how a terrified nation after the 9-11 attacks failed to either prevent or protest it. The threads of this sad fabric lead to Dick Cheney and his axe-man, David Addington. Jim Freeman voiced his concerns, but as Voltaire said some 300 years ago, "It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong." They were, tragically wrong.Freeman''s observations not only make a good read, but put you in the context of the time at the time. They''re compiled as originally written, without benefit of hindsight, ending in December 2006.The final five years of the Iraq War added casualties, costs and destruction, but the script was in place and already had Dick Cheney''s fingerprints all over it.

About The Dark Side of the Moon SeriesThe Dark Side of the Moon series is a chronological collection of observations on social, political and occasionally even personal subjects.Jim Freeman''s views of the American scene are salted with irony and lightly peppered by humor, a relief from the unending rants of the far left or far right and reasonably balanced by common sense. They''re here as Freeman wrote and published them at the time, unedited and without the benefit of hindsight.These books are food for thought and Freeman encourages readers to cut into them - use and abuse these books, dog-ear the pages, mark up with highlighter and write in the margins. Make them relevant, make them yours to refer to content that particularly pleased or infuriated you.The Dark Side of the Moon is a time-machine that brings the blur of events into focus and context. Mark Twain said "Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody." Jim Freeman uncovers that dark side and strives to shine light on it.About the 2008-2010 Book (Volume 5, the last of the Series) This fifth and final volume of The Dark Side of the Moon series begins with Welcome to the Ever-Changing, Ever-Same Face of America and winds up, some 546 pages later with Disaster Plans that Don''t Bother to Anticipate Disaster. You could pretty much say those ''bookend observations'' were an appropriate metaphor for the intervening years. We had a brand new President who many Americans felt actually seemed to offer The Audacity of Hope to a nation worn thin. What we got was headlock and deadlock, business pretty much as usual and a growing sense that what needed to be fixed was unfixable. These were the years of the near-past and a look back informs a look forward as we face an assessment of how much was hope and how much merely audacity.

Corner of My Mind contains perhaps the most personal of Jim Freeman''s poems. "I''d like to know you naked, so I could better understand you dressed / Clothes get between us, hiding what''s behind your eyes and mine," he says in a poem named Tulsa. These lines perfectly reflect the tone of a collection that exposes the writer''s mind, revealing far more than nakedness could.Freeman''s love poems are lyrical without the sugar coating. They honestly look at love as a permeating force in relationships with women, friends, or his favorite city. Prague provides more than the backdrop to his writing and a chance to explore the lives of strangers, as in Guardianship, where we observe an elderly couple on a tram. The cobblestone streets of this ancient city are a physical manifestation of probing the quiet and secret corners of one''s own mind.Several poems mark the complicated beginnings of Freeman''s relationship with his wife Michaela, then still "dancing to womanhood". His words "It might be a journey longer than I knew" in Flowered Fields seem almost prophetic as the free-thinking muse who possesses "an ancient spirit" became his companion over the past two decades. Corner of My Mind provides an intimate look at the motivations and habits of a writer, at friendships, past loves that never fade, life in an expat community and connections to people across continents and time zones."There''s a corner of my mind you own" the opening line of the title poem suggests your invitation to a shared journey.

Does the evening news make you question what happened to your America? Can this possibly be the nation that spent more than two centuries crafting itself into the strongest, most envied and productive country on Earth? Chop Shop is a refreshingly ironic and down-to-earth analysis that makes clear the origins and responsibility for an unprecedented Deconstruction of America. The past four of our forty-four presidents treated this country like a stolen car, selling it off in parts, plunging the nation toward mediocrity and the loss of personal freedom. The past two administrations increased that momentum and Freeman sees us with our backs against the wall. He argues that we either restore our constitutional legacy, both physically and intellectually, or lose the necessary energy to rebuild our dynamic republic. Without being a rant against liberals or conservatives, Chop Shop flags the many stops along a route that dumped us at this point, confused and at each others'' throats. We all share equally in the blame for that deconstruction. The book demands we look at America as it is, without the comfort or distraction of finger pointing. First steps forward require an understanding of what went before. Chop Shop uses that structural history, from its 19th century origins, to understand this threat to American society. We thus far have failed to do that and are losing it all in ignorance. The time is short. The impact is enormous and undeniable. Freeman states the case with enough humor and sense of irony to make the read, if not a pleasant journey, certainly an informative one.

In 1993 Jim Freeman left his hometown Chicago to live and write in Europe. He found himself in the golden city of Prague in the golden era of post-revolution growth - a strikingly beautiful city with a lively community of writers, musicians and artists.Although not exclusively about Prague, these poems reflect the shift in personal life and cultures, the disconnected relationships on one end and new emerging ones on the other. They explore connection to lovers, friends and family or glance into the lives of complete strangers. Jim Freeman is not the kind of guy you''d expect to write poetry and his poems are straightforward, often narrative, nothing to decipher and wonder what he meant. He''s clear on that, but still lets you read between the lines and fill in your own imagery.This volume is dedicated to his father. Its title poem The Smell of Tweed and Tobacco reaches into the mystery of a father-son relationship, exposing some of the tender points as well as the mutual love. We often don''t get to know enough about our parents. Fathers are especially reluctant to tell us the real story or expose their weaknesses. Expressing feelings in the context of poetry provides another way to look at them. It''s an enjoyable read and if it sparks conversations or helps bridge some gaps, even better.

About The Dark Side of the Moon SeriesThe Dark Side of the Moon series is a chronological collection of observations on social, political and occasionally even personal subjects.Jim Freeman''s views of the American scene are salted with irony and lightly peppered by humor, a relief from the unending rants of the far left or far right and reasonably balanced by common sense. They''re here as Freeman wrote and published them at the time, unedited and without the benefit of hindsight.These books are food for thought and Freeman encourages readers to cut into them - use and abuse these books, dog-ear the pages, mark up with highlighter and write in the margins. Make them relevant, make them yours to refer to content that particularly pleased or infuriated you.The Dark Side of the Moon is a time-machine that brings the blur of events into focus and context. Mark Twain said "Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody." Jim Freeman uncovers that dark side and strives to shine light on it.About the 2007 Book(Volume 4 of the 5 Volume Series) 2007 was a year when we came to realize 2006 wasn''t merely a blip on the screen and that Wall Street had us in deep trouble. This fourth segment of The Dark Side of the Moon series begins with Enough Naming Everything as War and winds up nearly 500 pages later with Making Second-Class Citizens of Non-Christians. What else was going on while America edged closer to the crumbling cliff of financial disaster? Presidential candidates positioned (then repositioned) themselves, scandals seemed to come and go with equal regularity and The Dark Side of the Moon brings focus to the sequence. That''s its purpose as a remembrance of the times that so quickly become a blur and we find ourselves wondering how it all happened. If there''s a sense of humor and a bit of irony tucked in along the way, so much the better.

If poetry can carry us through the difficult waters of our emotions, then this collection is your bad-weather friend. "I did lots of things last night my body wasn''t happy with" - haven''t we all been there? Or the opening lines of the title poem, "sleeping in broken pieces, the rusted wreckage of an unmade night" – doesn''t that sound familiar? Jim Freeman felt compelled to jot down the feeling of that particular night and pass it on. It''s like adding another word to our emotional vocabulary to tell us we''re not alone with these feelings, not the only ones with sleepless nights. We see ourselves and our lives in occasionally clear but mostly confused prose, but we can dream in poetry. We can use the broken pieces to build something new, like using a broken mirror to make a mosaic.While in The Smell of Tweed and Tobacco Freeman explores relationships and in Corner of My Mind looks more introspectively at love and personal issues, Broken Pieces is a poetry collection looking outward, reflecting bits and pieces of our world and the writing process as such. The themes here span from sailing, duck and elk hunting trips, to traveling Europe, exploring different cultures, perhaps even shedding light on burning social or political issues. Men might find these themes especially familiar and appealing and women can gain a quick insight into how guys think and what they dream of.

More than fifty years after the civil rights movement, there are still glaring racial inequities all across the United States. In Rich Thanks to Racism, Jim Freeman, one of the country's leading civil rights lawyers, explains why as he reveals the hidden strategy behind systemic racism. He details how the driving force behind the public policies that continue to devastate communities of color across the United States is a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals who profit mightily from racial inequality.In this groundbreaking examination of "strategic racism," Freeman carefully dissects the cruel and deeply harmful policies within the education, criminal justice, and immigration systems to discover their origins and why they persist. He uncovers billions of dollars in aligned investments by Bill Gates, Charles Koch, Mark Zuckerberg, and a handful of other billionaires that are dismantling public school systems across the United States. He exposes how the greed of prominent US corporations and Wall Street banks was instrumental in creating the world's largest prison population and our most extreme anti-immigrant policies. Freeman also demonstrates how these "racism profiteers" prevent flagrant injustices from being addressed by pitting white communities against communities of color, obscuring the fact that the struggles faced by white people are deeply connected with those faced by people of color.Rich Thanks to Racism is an invaluable road map for all those who recognize that the key to unlocking the United States' full potential is for more people of all races and ethnicities to prioritize racial justice.

The modern Middle East often seems like a web of problems none of which has proven more intractable over the last half century than the Israeli-Arab conflict. One of the core issues is the Israeli claim to ownership of modern-day real estate based on ancient stories that have been enshrined in scripture, promoted by politicians, and buttressed by Hollywood. In this book two revisionist thinkers expose what they argue are the tenuous underpinnings of these claims. Was the Exodus of scripture actually a Hebrew exodus. Was the Moses depicted by Charlton Heston actually a Hebrew leader? Or were they echoes of a much earlier exodus of Hyksos, the invasive people to first conquer and reign over Egyptians? The authors argue that neither Moses nor the Hebrews were in Egypt until around 1000 BCE -- 500 years after the earlier Exodus is known to have taken place. They go on to sift through research of an Hyksos evacuation of Egypt led by an Eastern leader who is far different than the Moses with whom we are familiar.

Movies, radio, television and more recently the internet each brought their own revolutions in communication, lifestyles and society. Current scientific research quietly hints at the next wave – the blending of computers with the human mind itself. Forget avatars and 3-D games, we''re on the threshold of chips in our brains that will enable us to experience the lives of the rich and famous. It''s coming, but are we ready? EVOKE is set in the very near future – where politicians still lust for power, people drive ordinary cars to ordinary work and eat fast-food. What''s different is EVOKE – a newly available network providing not merely information or virtual reality, but a chance to become someone else for a while. With EVOKE we can finally be in an exotic relationship, win the Masters Golf Tournament, walk the catwalk in Paris or dine at the Four Seasons. If we can be anyone and do anything online, who are we in our real lives? More importantly – who controls what we experience and distributes access to the first chips?The characters provide an intimate look at social and political change through the eyes of people accessing EVOKE, as well as those on the outside – from the politicians who control it, to businessmen hot after its commercial potential, to ordinary people who struggle for meaning in their lives while facing unlimited pleasure.It''s a chillingly realistic look into our future – our near future. Are you ready? Are any of us?

About the SeriesThe Dark Side of the Moon series is a chronological collection of observations on social, political and occasionally even personal subjects.Jim Freeman''s views of the American scene are salted with irony and lightly peppered by humor, a relief from the unending rants of the far left or right and reasonably balanced by common sense. They''re here as Freeman wrote and published them at the time, unedited and without the benefit of hindsight.These books are food for thought and Freeman encourages readers to cut into them - use and abuse these books, dog-ear the pages, mark-up with highlighter and write in the margins. Make them relevant, make them yours to refer to content that particularly pleased or infuriated you. Each book in the series is in some ways a time-machine that focuses the blur of events and gives them context. Mark Twain said "Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody."Jim Freeman looks at that dark side and strives to shine light on it.About the 2004-2005 Book (Volume 2 of the 5 Volume Series) Volume 2 of The Dark Side of the Moon moves from Howard Dean''s ''excellent chance of becoming the next president of the United States'' to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the evisceration of Medicaid and the exposure of the Jack Abramoff scandal.But what else was going on while Howard Dean opened the door and stood aside for John Kerry? All the frantic rhetoric of a presidential election year played out against two wars not going all that well, super-charged profits driven by rocket-fueled debt and the beginnings, the first itchiness around the American collar that all was not well deep down in the state of the union. What was on the national mind as Hurricane Katrina formed in the Gulf? Volume 2 of The Dark Side of the Moon frames the state of national disconnection, observing America within the context of those events.

Ceilia Lybrand has it all, a design career that''s bringing her money and recognition, along with a live-in stockbroker jock boyfriend. Life is good, or so it would seem. The chance finding of a company document on the copy machine sets her on a path of both self and career assessment that turns her life upside down, bringing her face to face with who she is and testing her willingness to put it all on the line.Support is half a world away in an almost accidental and continuing e-mail exchange with someone she''s never met, close as her keyboard and as distant as a voice in the night. Letters from Ceilia touches on issues successful women would rather avoid looking at, much less confront. Like most career women on the rise, Ceilia approaches her life and work with female emotions, despite the fact that she lives in a world largely defined and run by men.Through her correspondence, we get an intimate look at Celia''s psyche. Searching for strengths and struggling to survive, she puts her relationship and career at risk.But is it worth it?

About the SeriesThe Dark Side of the Moon series is a chronological collection of observations on social, political and occasionally even personal subjects.Jim Freeman''s views of the American scene are salted with irony and lightly peppered by humor, a relief from the unending rants of the far left or far right and reasonably balanced by common sense. They''re here as Freeman wrote and published them at the time, unedited and without the benefit of hindsight.These books are food for thought and Freeman encourages readers to cut into them - use and abuse these books, dog-ear the pages, mark up with highlighter and write in the margins. Make them relevant, make them yours to refer to content that particularly pleased or infuriated you.The Dark Side of the Moon is a time-machine that brings the blur of events into focus and context. Mark Twain said "Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody." Jim Freeman uncovers that dark side and strives to shine light on it.About the 2006 Book (Volume 3 of the 5 Volume Series) 2006 was possibly the most pivotal year of the decade, with the wheels apparently coming off American military and civil society on a dizzying daily basis. This third segment of The Dark Side of the Moon series begins with the Senate''s consideration of Sam Alito''s fitness to join the Supreme Court and winds up, some 460 pages later with the Exxon''s Valdez oil spill lawsuit limping to completion after a 12 year swordfight. What else was going on, while America twisted in the wind of wars going badly and the fear-factor leading us away from common sense? Quite a lot, actually and The Dark Side of the Moon brings the year back into focus and sequence, (I hope) with an appropriate sense of humor and irony. Pivotal no doubt, but 2006 surely must also be counted among the most ironic years of the weird decade to which it belongs.

The Island takes place on an ageless 800 acre duck hunting club on the Illinois River, land where the Illini Indian Confederation dominated for centuries before the white man came to North America. One can feel their presence. Hank Edson owns the island and it''s more than a playground for this Chicago contractor, it''s built with his sweat and dreams, the very essence of Hank''s powerful life.But the island comes with its own legacy, the old time market hunter and local redneck, Gart Haggard. Not a young man, Gart''s life-long reputation is that of an outlaw poacher, hot-headed and dangerous one moment, soft-spoken and generous the next. In his unsettled mind, the island is his by some strange birthright and the only way to achieve his goal is to drive Hank off this land. Fire is and always has been his weapon.A chilling story of two men in deadly conflict, the one honorable and immovable, the other arrogant and unstoppable, their confrontation growing as slowly and inexorably as Spanish moss. Hank is not a man to be driven off anything, particularly this ancient and mystic land that''s so much a part of his soul. And thus the story unfolds.Set in a last best place where hunting ducks is inseparable from the character of the land, anyone who has sat out a cold, wet morning in a duck blind will be drawn to The Island.

On March 20, 2003 the United States and Great Britain attacked Iraq, staying for 8 years, 273 days and leaving behind 150,000 Iraqi civilians dead and another half-million collateral victims. The cost to the US economy alone is estimated to $3 trillion, three thousand billion we didn''t have to begin with and failed to tax ourselves for, no one yet knowing the true cost.Dick Cheney''s Fingerprints begins 533 days before the invasion and points out how this war came to be, how it was perceived and reported by the media and how a terrified nation after the 9-11 attacks failed to either prevent or protest it. The threads of this sad fabric lead to Dick Cheney and his axe-man, David Addington. Jim Freeman voiced his concerns, but as Voltaire said some 300 years ago, "It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong." They were, tragically wrong.Freeman''s observations not only make a good read, but put you in the context of the time at the time. They''re compiled as originally written, without benefit of hindsight, ending in December 2006.The final five years of the Iraq War added casualties, costs and destruction, but the script was in place and already had Dick Cheney''s fingerprints all over it.

About The Dark Side of the Moon SeriesThe Dark Side of the Moon series is a chronological collection of observations on social, political and occasionally even personal subjects.Jim Freeman''s views of the American scene are salted with irony and lightly peppered by humor, a relief from the unending rants of the far left or far right and reasonably balanced by common sense. They''re here as Freeman wrote and published them at the time, unedited and without the benefit of hindsight.These books are food for thought and Freeman encourages readers to cut into them - use and abuse these books, dog-ear the pages, mark up with highlighter and write in the margins. Make them relevant, make them yours to refer to content that particularly pleased or infuriated you.The Dark Side of the Moon is a time-machine that brings the blur of events into focus and context. Mark Twain said "Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody." Jim Freeman uncovers that dark side and strives to shine light on it.About the 2008-2010 Book (Volume 5, the last of the Series) This fifth and final volume of The Dark Side of the Moon series begins with Welcome to the Ever-Changing, Ever-Same Face of America and winds up, some 546 pages later with Disaster Plans that Don''t Bother to Anticipate Disaster. You could pretty much say those ''bookend observations'' were an appropriate metaphor for the intervening years. We had a brand new President who many Americans felt actually seemed to offer The Audacity of Hope to a nation worn thin. What we got was headlock and deadlock, business pretty much as usual and a growing sense that what needed to be fixed was unfixable. These were the years of the near-past and a look back informs a look forward as we face an assessment of how much was hope and how much merely audacity.

Corner of My Mind contains perhaps the most personal of Jim Freeman''s poems. "I''d like to know you naked, so I could better understand you dressed / Clothes get between us, hiding what''s behind your eyes and mine," he says in a poem named Tulsa. These lines perfectly reflect the tone of a collection that exposes the writer''s mind, revealing far more than nakedness could.Freeman''s love poems are lyrical without the sugar coating. They honestly look at love as a permeating force in relationships with women, friends, or his favorite city. Prague provides more than the backdrop to his writing and a chance to explore the lives of strangers, as in Guardianship, where we observe an elderly couple on a tram. The cobblestone streets of this ancient city are a physical manifestation of probing the quiet and secret corners of one''s own mind.Several poems mark the complicated beginnings of Freeman''s relationship with his wife Michaela, then still "dancing to womanhood". His words "It might be a journey longer than I knew" in Flowered Fields seem almost prophetic as the free-thinking muse who possesses "an ancient spirit" became his companion over the past two decades. Corner of My Mind provides an intimate look at the motivations and habits of a writer, at friendships, past loves that never fade, life in an expat community and connections to people across continents and time zones."There''s a corner of my mind you own" the opening line of the title poem suggests your invitation to a shared journey.

Does the evening news make you question what happened to your America? Can this possibly be the nation that spent more than two centuries crafting itself into the strongest, most envied and productive country on Earth? Chop Shop is a refreshingly ironic and down-to-earth analysis that makes clear the origins and responsibility for an unprecedented Deconstruction of America. The past four of our forty-four presidents treated this country like a stolen car, selling it off in parts, plunging the nation toward mediocrity and the loss of personal freedom. The past two administrations increased that momentum and Freeman sees us with our backs against the wall. He argues that we either restore our constitutional legacy, both physically and intellectually, or lose the necessary energy to rebuild our dynamic republic. Without being a rant against liberals or conservatives, Chop Shop flags the many stops along a route that dumped us at this point, confused and at each others'' throats. We all share equally in the blame for that deconstruction. The book demands we look at America as it is, without the comfort or distraction of finger pointing. First steps forward require an understanding of what went before. Chop Shop uses that structural history, from its 19th century origins, to understand this threat to American society. We thus far have failed to do that and are losing it all in ignorance. The time is short. The impact is enormous and undeniable. Freeman states the case with enough humor and sense of irony to make the read, if not a pleasant journey, certainly an informative one.

In 1993 Jim Freeman left his hometown Chicago to live and write in Europe. He found himself in the golden city of Prague in the golden era of post-revolution growth - a strikingly beautiful city with a lively community of writers, musicians and artists.Although not exclusively about Prague, these poems reflect the shift in personal life and cultures, the disconnected relationships on one end and new emerging ones on the other. They explore connection to lovers, friends and family or glance into the lives of complete strangers. Jim Freeman is not the kind of guy you''d expect to write poetry and his poems are straightforward, often narrative, nothing to decipher and wonder what he meant. He''s clear on that, but still lets you read between the lines and fill in your own imagery.This volume is dedicated to his father. Its title poem The Smell of Tweed and Tobacco reaches into the mystery of a father-son relationship, exposing some of the tender points as well as the mutual love. We often don''t get to know enough about our parents. Fathers are especially reluctant to tell us the real story or expose their weaknesses. Expressing feelings in the context of poetry provides another way to look at them. It''s an enjoyable read and if it sparks conversations or helps bridge some gaps, even better.

About The Dark Side of the Moon SeriesThe Dark Side of the Moon series is a chronological collection of observations on social, political and occasionally even personal subjects.Jim Freeman''s views of the American scene are salted with irony and lightly peppered by humor, a relief from the unending rants of the far left or far right and reasonably balanced by common sense. They''re here as Freeman wrote and published them at the time, unedited and without the benefit of hindsight.These books are food for thought and Freeman encourages readers to cut into them - use and abuse these books, dog-ear the pages, mark up with highlighter and write in the margins. Make them relevant, make them yours to refer to content that particularly pleased or infuriated you.The Dark Side of the Moon is a time-machine that brings the blur of events into focus and context. Mark Twain said "Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody." Jim Freeman uncovers that dark side and strives to shine light on it.About the 2007 Book(Volume 4 of the 5 Volume Series) 2007 was a year when we came to realize 2006 wasn''t merely a blip on the screen and that Wall Street had us in deep trouble. This fourth segment of The Dark Side of the Moon series begins with Enough Naming Everything as War and winds up nearly 500 pages later with Making Second-Class Citizens of Non-Christians. What else was going on while America edged closer to the crumbling cliff of financial disaster? Presidential candidates positioned (then repositioned) themselves, scandals seemed to come and go with equal regularity and The Dark Side of the Moon brings focus to the sequence. That''s its purpose as a remembrance of the times that so quickly become a blur and we find ourselves wondering how it all happened. If there''s a sense of humor and a bit of irony tucked in along the way, so much the better.

If poetry can carry us through the difficult waters of our emotions, then this collection is your bad-weather friend. "I did lots of things last night my body wasn''t happy with" - haven''t we all been there? Or the opening lines of the title poem, "sleeping in broken pieces, the rusted wreckage of an unmade night" – doesn''t that sound familiar? Jim Freeman felt compelled to jot down the feeling of that particular night and pass it on. It''s like adding another word to our emotional vocabulary to tell us we''re not alone with these feelings, not the only ones with sleepless nights. We see ourselves and our lives in occasionally clear but mostly confused prose, but we can dream in poetry. We can use the broken pieces to build something new, like using a broken mirror to make a mosaic.While in The Smell of Tweed and Tobacco Freeman explores relationships and in Corner of My Mind looks more introspectively at love and personal issues, Broken Pieces is a poetry collection looking outward, reflecting bits and pieces of our world and the writing process as such. The themes here span from sailing, duck and elk hunting trips, to traveling Europe, exploring different cultures, perhaps even shedding light on burning social or political issues. Men might find these themes especially familiar and appealing and women can gain a quick insight into how guys think and what they dream of.