Policy Making and Southern Distinctiveness examines the uniqueness of southern politics and their policy choices. While decades of scholarship on the politics of the American South have focused on partisanship and electoral outcomes as the primary elements of interest in southern politics, few works have focused on the more practical outcomes of these political processes, specifically, comparing state policy choices of southern states to non-southern states. This book examines six different policy arenas: voting access, gun control, health care, reproductive rights, water, and COVID-19 pandemic response, comparing policy choices in states in the South with states in the non-South. The authors find that the South is distinct in several, but not all, of the policy arenas examined. They conclude that the South as a region is unique because of the exceptional degree of one-party control evident in the South, coupled with a long-standing preoccupation with partisanship and race-based politics. Policy Making and Southern Distinctiveness provides valuable insights into how and why states behave in the manner they do and where southern states may diverge from the rest of the country. It will be of interest to scholars of southern politics, state comparative policy, public policy, American politics, and federalism/intergovernmental relations.

I am a result of the Vietnam War, actually-the "Secret War" in Laos--a bastard son of an American soldier stationed in Udon Thani during the decades-long Indochina conflict. When American soldiers moved into Udon Air Force Base, the promise of great opportunities and riches excited many impoverished villagers around the rural Isaan farmlands; long overlooked by the Thai government. My mother, a young woman at the time, embraced this chance to make money, and even dreamed of being married off to a rich Tahaan Falaang who would take her away from the misery of subsistence living-a poor rural Isaan woman's fantasy that evaporated the moment the Americans packed up and went home. With mounting pressure to survive in these rural lands, my mother did what many women in the same situation did-dropped me off at an orphanage. It was a journey that shredded my spirit and buried me deep in despair. I had no choice but to reach out into the unknown. Fate took me there. But a miracle brought me out...

The iconic Porsche 911 is a rarity - a world-class performance car that can still be improved. This book shows how anyone with tools and a modicum of skill can make this great car even better, with performance-enhancing tricks, and techniques ranging from subtle to extreme. Focusing solely on the air-cooled cars from 1963 to early 1998, this third edition of the best-selling "Porsche 911 Performance Handbook" provides clearly illustrated, easy to follow instructions for making modifications to any and every working part of the car, from transmission and engine to suspension, brakes, tires, wheels, and more. Author and noted Porsche expert Bruce Anderson offers advice on buying a Porsche 911, custom treatments, and maintenance. A detailed appendices lists tune-up specs, conversion charts, handy formulas and resources, making this an essential and practical reference for any air-cooled Porsche owner and driver.

The idea of this book, the first in a series, is to give readers a sense of what vast Mendocino County is like, really like, from its beginnings to now. The contents derive from my readings of the scant formal histories of the county, and from my readings of the slightly more abundant memoirs of early settlers. My experiences are mixed in, and some of the book is autobiographical because you may want to know something about the person telling you these things. My family's history is intertwined in mostly oblique ways with the county, whose written history commenced with its merciless first settlers, the long, lethal sons of Missouri who rode west from the gold fields to occupy what must have seemed to them an endless, empty Eden of well-watered little valleys. But there had been people in this Eden for 12,000 years. Those people were annhilated before they could teach us what only they knew. The bouncing ball of the narrative you'll find here moves back and forth across time conveying, I hope, my sense of an accelerating history of often absurd, often bloody events visited upon a uniquely beautiful part of the country.

Every teacher has a core gift, a specific attribute of their teaching style, resulting from their talents and difficult life experiences. Using core gift strengthens teaching and heals the teacher. Includes multicultural history of idea, six primary benefits, teacher's dialogue about benefits, and process to identify your core gift.