In The Upside-Down Buddha: Parables & Fables: Third Series, Steven Carter continues to breathe new life into two of the world's oldest art forms. By turns hilarious, poignant, and profound, the entries in The Upside-Down Buddha are certain to instruct and entertain a diverse modern audience.

As religiously grounded moral arguments have become ever more influential factors in the national debate-particularly reinforced by recent presidential elections and the creation of the faith-based initiative office in the White House-journalists' ignorance about theological convictions has often worked to distort the public discourse on important policy issues. Pope John Paul II's pronouncements on stem-cell research, the constitutional controversies regarding faith-based initiatives, the emerging participation of Muslims in American life-issues like these require political journalists in print and broadcast media to cover religious contexts that many admit they are ill-equipped to understand. Put differently, these news events reflect subtle theological nuances and deep faith commitments that shape the activities of religious believers in the public square. Inasmuch as a faith tradition is an active or significant participant in the public arena, journalists will need to better understand the theological sources and religious convictions that motivate this political activity. The current national discourse has brought faith and its relationship to public policy to the forefront of our daily news. Since 1999, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, through the generosity of the Pew Charitable Trusts, has hosted six conferences for national journalists to help raise the level of their reporting by increasing their understanding of religion, religious communities, and the religious convictions that inform the political activity of devout believers. This book contains the presentations and conversations that grew out of those conferences.

This study concentrates on The Devils, but also places this novel in the total context of Dostoevsky's work. Also considered is the life and work of T.N. Granovsky, who is satirised along with Turgenev in the novel, and thus offers a useful basis on which to delineate the contours of Dostoevsky's thought. First published in 1991, the book begins from the belief that his "genius embodies much of what is typical of Russian life: his boundless vitality, his extremism, his lack of empiricism and economy. To understand Dostoevsky is therefore somehow to understand Russia." The author concludes that Dostoevsky badly misunderstood Western liberalism, but grappled very well with the psychology of the radical terrorist. This is explained with reference to his intellectual revolution, which is seen as consisting of six stages from his early works of the 1840s.

Perhaps love itself will always be a mystery. Why a relationship works or doesn't work, however, is not a total mystery. It is only a challenge that you can easily meet if you have the tools, starting with awareness as the key.

This is the third volume in a trilogy of fables (and parables) by Steven Carter. Carter's butterflies are naive, worldly, sarcastic, philosophical, and very funny-in short, perfectly human!

Look around you. The world is more homogenous than you think. Far too often, distinctions among people, places, and things are matters of degree rather than kind. Many are illusory. As satire, Little House of Imaginary Distinctions is meant to complement Steven Carter's previous book, Little House of Oxymorons, published by Hamilton Books in 2010.

Eschewing old clunkers like "military intelligence" and "student-athlete," this volume features well over 200 fresh and original oxymorons with commentaries-all with a satirical twist. As a satire, Little House of Oxymorons complements Steven Carter's The New Devil's Dictionary, a two-volume "sequel" to Ambrose Bierce's notorious The Devil's Dictionary of a century ago. Cover image: Allison O'Donnell, Resist, 2008. Acrylic and graphite painting on rag board.

In After Aesop: Improvisations on Aesop's Fables, Steven Carter adds parody to his wide-ranging repertoire of literary genres. Aesop, perhaps the world's best-known author, produced hundreds of fables that have been re-told countless times, but rarely parodied on a one-to-one basis. By turns hilarious, poignant, and profound, the more than 200 entries in After Aesop are certain to instruct and entertain a diverse modern audience.

New Aphorisms & Reflections: Third Series, the sixth volume in a sequence which began with 222: Aphorisms & Reflections, features more than 450 entries, some of which are autobiographical. Like its predecessors, New Aphorisms & Reflections includes a sampling of "meetings of the minds"-dialogues between the author and aphorists and thinkers of the past. Cover image: Allison O'Donnell, Mostly Underground, 2008. Acrylic and graphite on board.

In The Judgment of the Crows: Parables & Fables, Steven Carter breathes new life into two of the world's oldest art forms. At times hilarious, poignant, and profound, the entries in The Judgment of the Crows are certain to instruct and entertain a diverse modern audience. The volume concludes with a handful of "improvisations" on Aesop's fables.

New Aphorisms & Reflections, the fourth volume of a major work in progress, features nearly 500 entries, some of which are autobiographical. Like its predecessors, New Aphorisms & Reflections includes a sampling of "meetings of the minds"-dialogues between the author and aphorists and thinkers of the past.

New Aphorisms & Reflections: Second Series, the fifth volume of a major work in progress, features more than 400 entries, some of which are autobiographical. Like its predecessors, New Aphorisms & Reflections includes a sampling of 'meetings of the minds'-dialogues between the author and aphorists and thinkers of the past.

The second installment of Steven Carter's multi-volume series 222: Aphorisms & Reflections features 222 additional entries, including a generous sampling of "meetings of the minds"--dialogues between the author and aphorists and thinkers of the past.

The third installment of Steven Carter's multi-volume series 222: Aphorisms & Reflections features 222 additional entries, including a generous sampling of "meetings of the minds"--dialogues between the author and aphorists and thinkers of the past.

222: Aphorisms & Reflections is an attempt to breathe new life into the art of the aphorism and the brief reflection (or meditation), brought to near-perfection in Western culture over the last five centuries by Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, Lichtenberg, Nietzsche, Kafka, E.M. Cioran, Karl Kraus, Fernando Pessoa, and many others. About four in ten of the entries in 222 consist of "conversations" between Steven Carter and aphorists of the past, including many of the above. In publishing this initial volume of a projected multi-volume work, Carter hopes to join the ranks of current aphorists and anthologists James Richardson and James Geary, to name two whose recent works help to further the grand tradition of the aphorism, which began in ancient Greece with Hippocrates, the West's first known aphorist. While 222 is primarily intended for a general college-educated audience, everyone can enjoy a good aphorism-as the Americans Josh Billings, Will Rogers, and especially Mark Twain have shown."

How is terrorism transformed into media entertainment? What is the connection between affirmative action and narcissism? Why has pathos become an endangered-perhaps an extinct-species in the contemporary American psyche? In American Affect in the Postmodern Era: A Primer, Steven Carter addresses these and other questions that have helped to define American popular culture since the nineteen-sixties. Cover painting: Kyle Margiotta, Baja, 1999. Oil on canvas.

Narcissists always make sure that their relationships are organised around their priorities, their agendas, and their problems; they are people who are so self-involved that they can't really relate to their partners' needs. "Help, I'm in Love with a Narcissist" spells out why it's so easy to get romantically involved with narcissists, who are often experts in intensity, passion, and seduction, and also highlights the difficulties of remaining in these relationships. Using detailed anecdotes from narcissism survivors, the authors illustrate the common pitfalls of narcissistic relationships, and help readers come to terms with exactly what they are experiencing. They also draw the connection between narcissism and commitment issues as well as between narcissism and addictive behaviours such as alcoholism. With in-depth analysis, readers will learn how to cope with narcissistic relationships and how to get help or get out. Here are the valuable tactics and survival tips men and women in narcissistic relationships must have in order to take care of themselves. This book helps you: identify narcissistic behaviour and its painful impact; know why you may be particularly vulnerable to narcissists; recognise how narcissists make you feel special (at first); understand why you are doing most of the work in the relationship; learn to avoid future narcissistic seduction; and arrive at a realistic appraisal of your partner's capacity for change. Written with the compassionate language that people have come to rely upon and expect from these proven relationship experts, this book goes beyond an explanation of the condition to help men and women avoid the self-destructive permanence of remaining with people incapable of loving anyone but themselves.

The Nothing That Is and the Nothing That Is Not is the final volume in a trilogy on interpretations of otherness in the postmodern era. The first two volumes are A Do-It-Yourself Dystopia: The Americanization of Big Brother (University Press of America, 2002) and Leopards in the Temple: Selected Essays 1990-2000 (University Press of America, 2001).

In an era when many scholars and critics can't seem to see the forest of literature for the trees of theory, objective readings of texts are few and far between. In Devotions to the Text, Steven Carter seeks to counter this trend by demonstrating that Samuel Johnson's admonition to "empty your mind of cant" is still sage advice for today's readers, both private and professional. Devotions to the Text constitutes a bold act of rebellion against those who would transform texts into mirrors that reflect only their own ideas and/or ideologies.

Develop Network Infrastructure More Rapidly, and Operate It More Effectively Using model-driven DevOps and the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) paradigm, teams can develop and operate network infrastructure more quickly, consistently, and securely--growing agility, getting to market sooner, and delivering more value. Now, two leading practitioners walk you step by step through successfully implementing model-driven DevOps for infrastructure. In this practical guide, they share lessons learned, help you avoid common pitfalls, and illuminate key differences between DevOps for infrastructure and conventional application-based DevOps. You'll learn why network infrastructure operations must change, what needs to change, and how to work together to change it. The authors guide you through creating consistent data models to manage massive numbers of network elements, organizing huge quantities of network data, and applying DevOps to infrastructure repeatably and consistently. Your journey includes a complete, hands-on reference implementation, detailed use cases, many examples based on open source tools, and sample code downloadable at GitHub. * Normalize and organize network infrastructure data consistently, to gain the same benefits from DevOps as cloud operators do * Replace legacy command lines with APIs, then leverage and scale them * Use configuration management, templates, and other tools to program infrastructure without coding * Safely implement Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment for infrastructure * Succeed with key human factors: break down silos, change culture, and address skills gaps Whether you're a network or cybersecurity engineer, architect, manager, or leader, this guide will help you suffuse all your network operations with greater efficiency, security, responsiveness, and resilience.

The essence of life in an oligarchy like George Orwell presents in '1984' is that freedom of choice is virtually non-existent. But what happens when so many trivial and meaningless choices inundate a culture such as our own and freedom itself becomes devalued? In 'A Do-It-Yourself Dystopia', through a variety of essays, Steven Carter addresses this and other issues in a wide-ranging search for hidden oligarchies of the American self.

What is the role of the traditional Judeo-Christian concept of otherness in a secularized, high-tech society such as our own? In a world governed by the extensions of man-television, the telephone, the automobile, and the Internet-what happens to cultural values once held to be spiritual? In Leopards in the Temple: Selected Essays 1990-2000, Steven Carter explores the myriad ways in which technology and its "muses"-media entertainment and advertising, the so-called culture of electronics plus capitalism-are in the process of recycling metaphysical values in postmodern American life.

Getting to Commitment offers understanding, inspiration, and a concrete plan of action for any woman, man, or couple who is ready to tackle the eight most destructive demons that make people run from loving relationships.

This is the classic relationship book -- now in trade paperback for the first time. Featured on 'Oprah' and 'Sally Jesse Raphael', this definitive look at the dynamics of male-female communication gets to the heart of the all-too-common phenomenon: women who are ready and willing to commit, and men who back off just as the relationship moves toward the next level. This book can help you to: Recognise early warning signs of the commitment-phobic man; Determine the extent of his fears -- and his willingness to change; Analyse your own role in the situation; avoid unnecessary stress and heartache.

Before "Ally McBeal" there was "What Smart Women Know, " a straightforward and honest guide from women who have learned the hard way how to be smart about men. This national bestseller is geared for women from all walks of life.