political science / public policy / general

"Blaze TV and top radio host Dana Loesch explains that the biggest political problem today is that the people who run this country have no idea what life is really like for ordinary Americans."--.

"The American criminal justice system is supposed to be a contest between two equal adversaries, the prosecution and the defense, with judges ensuring a fair fight. But [this book argues] it is prosecutors who have the upper hand, in a contest that is far from equal. More than anyone else, prosecutors decide who goes free and who goes to prison, and even who lives and who dies. The system wasn't designed for this kind of unchecked power, and in 'Charged,' Emily Bazelon shows that it is an underreported cause of enormous injustice--and the missing piece in the mass incarceration puzzle. But that's only half the story. Prosecution in America is at a crossroads. The power of prosecutors makes them the actors in the system--the only actors--who can fix what's broken without changing a single law . . ."--Provided by publisher.

Using the trial of Herbert Weinstein, a sixty-five year old man who murdered his wife and was later found to have a cyst on his brain, the author discusses the use of neuroscience in the courtroom as a defense.

"Debunking the lethal logic behind the pervasive myths that have framed the gun control debate "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." We've all heard these slogans time and again. The result of a targeted marketing effort by the NRA and other pro-gun organizations, these catchphrases have come to define the contemporary gun control debate. Dennis Henigan explodes the misguided thinking at the heart of these pro-gun slogans and dissects their deadly impact on US gun policy in this completely revised and updated edition of his much-praised 2009 hardcover (Lethal Logic, which has never been published in paperback). The gun lobby's remarkable success in infiltrating the gun control lexicon with these catchy slogans has allowed them to block lifesaving gun legislation for decades and gained them unprecedented influence in American politics. In this well-researched but accessible book, Henigan takes the NRA's myths to task and exposes the fallacious thinking behind the gun lobby's bumper-sticker logic"--.

"A crusading legal scholar exposes the powerful psychological forces that undermine our criminal justice system--and affect us all ... In Unfair, law professor Adam Benforado shines a light on this troubling new research, showing, for example, that people with certain facial features receive longer sentences and that judges are far more likely to grant parole first thing in the morning. In fact, over the last two decades, psychologists and neuroscientists have uncovered many cognitive forces that operate beyond our conscious awareness--and Benforado argues that until we address these hidden biases head-on, the social inequality we see now will only widen, as powerful players and institutions find ways to exploit the weaknessesin our legal system"--Provided by publisher.

"In her foreword to Science Next, Elizabeth Edwards wrote of science as a tool for social progress: "Innovation is not simply the abstract victory of knowledge [or] the research that gave me years to live; the next science can advance human flourishing and serve the common good. That's the kind of world I want to leave for my children, and for yours." With these words, she joined a tradition that goes back to America's founders, who saw America itself as a "great experiment." Yet while no one can deny that science undergirds the American Dream, it has long been fertile terrain for the "culture wars." Along with arguing the pros and cons of abortion and healthcare, policymakers must now grapple with advancements that raise questions about what it means to be human: we've decoded the genome, but should we modify it to enhance certain "desirable" traits? If we can, should we prolong life at any cost? Will we soon be counting robots, cyborgs, and chimeras among our friends and family?The first book to unpack our love/hate relationship with science from our country's origins to today, The Body Politic is essential reading for science buffs and concerned citizens alike.Jonathan D. Moreno is editor of the Center for American Progress' online magazine Science Progress and professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. Author and editor of many seminal books and articles on science and science policy, he divides his time between Philadelphia, PA, and Washington, DC"--.