Is Democracy Possible Here or Low Voltage Wiring

Is Democracy Possible Here?: Principles for a New Political Debate

Author: Ronald Dworkin

Politics in America are polarized and trivialized, perhaps as never before. In Congress, the media, and academic debate, opponents from right and left, the Red and the Blue, struggle against one another as if politics were contact sports played to the shouts of cheerleaders. The result, Ronald Dworkin writes, is a deeply depressing political culture, as ill equipped for the perennial challenge of achieving social justice as for the emerging threats of terrorism. Can the hope for change be realized? Dworkin, one the world's leading legal and political philosophers, identifies and defends core principles of personal and political morality that all citizens can share. He shows that recognizing such shared principles can make substantial political argument possible and help replace contempt with mutual respect. Only then can the full promise of democracy be realized in America and elsewhere.

Dworkin lays out two core principles that citizens should share: first, that each human life is intrinsically and equally valuable and, second, that each person has an inalienable personal responsibility for identifying and realizing value in his or her own life. He then shows what fidelity to these principles would mean for human rights, the place of religion in public life, economic justice, and the character and value of democracy. Dworkin argues that liberal conclusions flow most naturally from these principles. Properly understood, they collide with the ambitions of religious conservatives, contemporary American tax and social policy, and much of the War on Terror. But his more basic aim is to convince Americans of all political stripes--as well as citizens of other nations with similarcultures--that they can and must defend their own convictions through their own interpretations of these shared values.

Publishers Weekly

Rarely has partisan rhetoric been more divisive or political bickering more infantile than over the last few election cycles. In this short book, Dworkin, a professor of law and philosophy at New York University and Oxford University, argues that liberals and conservatives must realize that each camp is working for the same goal of a better nation. Dworkin (Law's Empire) builds this work on the assertion that most Americans accept certain fundamental principles, the most important of which are the beliefs that "each human life has a special kind of objective value" and "each person has a special responsibility for realizing the success of his own life." From these conventionally conservative maxims, Dworkin constructs an unmistakably liberal legal framework, coming down in favor of due process for terror suspects, same-sex marriage, abortion rights and progressive taxation and social welfare policies. Written in simple and sometimes repetitive language, some of the book's sections are more compelling than others. The too-brief passage on abortion, for instance, is unlikely to make any converts, and the final chapter, on tax-and-spend policies, may strike some as na ve. Though his claim that democracy is imperiled by a dearth of rational public debate is certainly overblown, Dworkin's book deserves careful consideration and response. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Eminent philosopher Dworkin (law, New York Univ. & jurisprudence, University Coll. London; Sovereign Virtue) here sets himself the ambitious goal of infusing political discourse in the United States with reasoning such as he himself has employed while engaged in scholarly debate for the past 30 years over the nature of law, of rights, and of liberty and equality. He attempts to address our "degraded politics," which he believes threaten the legitimacy of America's political order, by proposing two principles that can be shared even among those on opposite edges of today's political divides: that each human life has objective value and that each person has responsibility for realizing the potential of his or her own life. From these principles, Dworkin constructs arguments on the treatment of suspected terrorists, the place of religion in public life, and our system of taxation, while contesting a purely majoritarian form of democracy. Dworkin invites those who disagree with his own liberal conclusions to respond with respectful argument and not sloganeering. Based on Princeton's 2005 Scribner Lectures and among the most accessible of Dworkin's many books, this is recommended for public-and essential for academic-libraries.-Robert F. Nardini, Chichester, NH Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

See also: The Family Guide to Reflexology or Sensual Massage

Low Voltage Wiring: Security/Fire Alarm Systems

Author: Terry Kennedy

Best-of-the-best guidelines for handling low voltage wiring

The A-Z reference on designing, installing, maintaining, and troubleshooting modern security and fire alarm systems is now fully up-to-date in a new edition. Prepared by Terry Kennedy and John E. Traister, authors with over three decades of hands-on experience apiece in the construction industry, Low Voltage Wiring: Security/Fire Alarm Systems, Third Edition provides all the appropriate wiring data you need to work on security and fire alarm systems in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. A CD-ROM packaged with the book conveniently puts at your fingertips sample forms, checklists, a fully-searchable glossary, and hot-linked industry reference URLs. In addition, you get:

*Important safety tips
* Lists of regulations
* Explanations of emerging technologies
*Useful treatments of estimating and bidding
* Much more

JOHN E. TRAISTER (deceased) was involved in the electrical industry for more than 35 years and wrote several best-selling McGraw-Hill books, including the HANDBOOK OF ELECTRICAL DESIGN DETAILS and the NEC HANDBOOK. He was the original author of SECURITY/FIRE ALARM SYSTEMS.

TERRY KENNEDY is an analyst for Liberty Mutual and scrutinizes the causes of defects in major construction lawsuits. He has had a hands-on involvement with the construction industry for over 30 years--carpenter, electrician, general contractor, construction manager, estimator--a thorough knowledge of the industry. Mr. Kennedy is a freelance writer, has been a featured speaker and lecturer, has recently completed the 2nd Edition of the ROOFING HANDBOOK, and is working on the ROOFER'S INSTANT ANSWER BOOKfor McGraw-Hill.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
Pt. 1	The Security Systems Business
Ch. 1	A Business Built on Contracts	3
Ch. 2	Estimating the Installation of Security Systems	27
Ch. 3	Managing a Security Systems Business	49
Ch. 4	Profit Centers: Service, Maintenance, and Ancillary Cash Flow	71
Pt. 2	The Field
Ch. 5	Basic Security System Considerations	93
Ch. 6	Basic Installation Techniques	121
Ch. 7	Residential Security Systems	159
Ch. 8	Commercial and Industrial Security Systems	183
Ch. 9	Troubleshooting and Maintenance of Security Systems	199
Pt. 3	A Deeper Understanding
Ch. 10	Electrical Circuits	233
Ch. 11	The Code	281
Ch. 12	Print Reading	313
	Using the CD	349
	Glossary	351
	Resource Directory	379
	Index	395