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The COVID-19 crisis has revealed how quickly existing conditions can crumble under stress. A perfect storm of a different kind is approaching, and we don't see it coming. Feeling its early tremors, we are borrowing heavily on the future to sustain an unsustainable paradigm, and mortgaging, in effect, the American Dream for future generations while jeopardizing our own. In Mortgaging the American Dream, award-winning author R. Michael Conley describes the development of the perfect storm, its damaging claim on the resources that have made the American Dream possible, and how, over decades of intergenerational malpractice, it has morphed into the existential threat it poses today. Climate change, ecological destruction, crushing debt, and geopolitical gamesmanship are a few toxic byproducts of this play now, pay later paradigm. By addressing exponential threats with linear thinking and complex, systemic threats with quick fixes, we have exacerbated the challenges. Conley concludes with a chilling account of what it will be like to live through the perfect storm and then provides a plan showing how the crisis can be used as a catalyst for mitigating the storm's sharper edges and getting positioned for a sustainable future. A multidisciplinary textbook with a personality, personal vignettes describe how the American Dream played out for Conley and several others who were there at the infancy of the perfect storm.

This is a true story and after 42 years of Military History it encompasses much of my life as a soldier, a Green Beret, a Ranger and a Ranger Instructor. I have served as a team leader, a squad leader, a platoon Sargent, a Field First Sergeant in Iraq and served as the Senior Operations Non-Commissioned Officer in the Republic of Georgia and as First Sergeant and a NCOIC of a Mitt team in Iraq. I must surely tell the truth that all of my dreams have come true and some way on beyond what I could ever have hoped for.

This is a true story and after 42 years of Military History, it encompasses much of my life as a soldier, a Green Beret, a Ranger and a Ranger Instructor. I have served as a team leader, a squad leader, a platoon Sargent, a Field First Sergeant in Iraq and served as the Senior Operations Non-Commissioned Officer in the Republic of Georgia and as First Sergeant and a NCOIC of a Mitt team in Iraq. I must surely tell the truth that all of my dreams have come true and some way on beyond what I could ever have hoped for. Following the original publication of this book, there were individuals who, for their own reasons, attempted to use errors in my records to discredit my service. At great personal effort and expense, I have at last gotten my records corrected and am including them in this revised edition.

Crime and corruption are rising in Ocean Park, a tired factory town in northern Massachusetts. The police and fire departments are no help—they're staging a work slowdown to protest a pay freeze caused by city budget cuts. Police Detective Matt Conley is disgusted with the dereliction of duty, and when tasked with solving the murder of a young Haitian immigrant, he infuriates the force by teaming with the victim's friend Emmanuel to find the killer. They encounter an enterprising family of Voudou worshipers, a ruthless real estate magnate, and a clever, love-struck arsonist in their search for justice. This Wicked City is a mystery powered by its characters' struggles with love, loyalty, and sacrifice.

How many ways can the world fall apart? A smug superhero belittles the very people he's supposed to save. An Aztec god escapes the sacking of his city to take refuge in modern-day Manchester, and even the penguins decide to rise up against their human captors.

A monster made of grass, a disgusting wedding present, a Baby Parade. A series of capricious and lazily malevolent authority figures, wielding power with impunity, excused and indulged by teams of complicit functionaries. Awful children behaving abominably; awful adults trapped in physical and emotional cages partly of their own making. In These Are Not My Dreams..., the rules of the ordinary world are twisted and undermined, as Michael Conley's writing explores how readily we welcome the cruel and absurd into our everyday lives. Picking up some of the same themes and characters from his acclaimed 2019 prose collection Flare and Falter, these poems hum with an oddball energy that urges the reader to take the ridiculous seriously.

"God, Please Give Me Patience...and Hurry " takes a humorous look at how we all can laugh at ourselves when we run out of patience. From Brooklyn to Hollywood and all across America, humor helps us to be strong and carry on even when we want to give up. Broadway, movie and TV comedienne Candice Azzara and TV sketch comedy writer Michael Conley share their 24 original short stories on patience in this first of many humorous books.

What's so special about Rumi?In this new, compelling book from author Michael Conley, find out more about Rumi ...Jal??l ad-D??n Mu???ammad Balkh??, also known as Jal??l ad-D??n Mu???ammad R??m?? and popularly known as Mevl??n?? in Turkey and Mawl??n?? in Iran and Afghanistan but known to the English-speaking world simply as Rumi was a 13th-century Persian Muslim poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. R??m?? is a descriptive name meaning "Roman" since he lived most of his life in an area called "R??m" because it was once ruled by the Eastern Roman Empire. He was one of the figures who flourished in the Sultanate of Rum.It is likely that he was born in the village of Wakhsh, a small town located at the river Wakhsh in Persia. Wakhsh belonged to the larger province of Balkh, and in the year Rumi was born, his father was an appointed scholar there. Both these cities were at the time included in the greater Persian cultural sphere of Khorasan, the easternmost province of Persia and was part of the Khwarezmian Empire.His birthplace and native language both indicate a Persian heritage. His father decided to migrate westwards due to quarrels between different dynasties in Khorasan, opposition to the Khwarizmid Shahs, who were considered deviant by Bah?? ad-D??n Walad, or fear of the impending Mongol cataclysm. Rumi's family traveled west, first performing the Hajj and eventually settling in the Anatolian city Konya. This was where he lived most of his life, and here he composed one of the crowning glories of Persian literature which profoundly affected the culture of the area.He lived most of his life under the Sultanate of Rum, where he produced his works and died in 1273??AD. He was buried in Konya and his shrine became a place of pilgrimage. Following his death, his followers and his son Sultan Walad founded the Mevlevi Order, also known as the Order of the Whirling Dervishes, famous for its Sufi dance known as the Sama ceremony.Rumi's works are written in the New Persian language. A Persian literary renaissance started in regions of Sistan, Khor??s??n and Transoxiana and by the 10th/11th century, it reinforced the Persian language as the preferred literary and cultural language in the Persian Islamic world. Rumi's importance is considered to transcend national and ethnic borders. His original works are widely read in their original language across the Persian-speaking world. Translations of his works are very popular in other countries. His poetry has influenced Persian literature as well as Urdu, Punjabi and other Pakistani languages written in Perso/Arabic script e.g. Pashto and Sindhi. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages and transposed into various formats. In 2007, he was described as the "most popular poet in America.".So, what seperates this book from the rest?A comprehensive narrative of Rumi, this book gives a full understanding of the subject.A brief guide of subject areas covered in "1207 Births - Rumi" include -- Rumi- Masnavi- Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi- Spiritual evolution- Mevlevi Order- Sama (Sufism)Find out more of this subject, it's intricacies and it's nuances. Discover more about it's importance. Develop a level of understanding required to comprehend this fascinating concept.Author Michael Conley has worked hard researching and compiling this fundamental work, and is proud to bring you "1207 Births - Rumi" ...Read this book today ...