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Loading... 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (And Al Franken Is #37)by Bernard GoldbergLibraryThing recommendationsLoading...
won't like
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Easy read, could have been better. (  ) foof2you | Oct 1, 2008 |  This was more of a toilet book that one could read in short installments. His neoconservative rants are typical of the Fox News stuff, but then again, I like to know what is going on with the opposite of my politics. It also informs me that I should find the people that are excoriated to be admired. (  ) dickcraig | Sep 5, 2008 | Entertaining and often insightful take on American society and culture. (  ) boleyn | Apr 4, 2008 | Because I enjoyed Bias so much, I was especially surprised to find this book so mediocre. Perhaps it really is true that saying negative things never impresses, but I think the main obstacle is this format. Goldberg can only be superficial in commenting on a field of 100 people. It would have been more impressive if he had stuck to his opening chapters about the various types of people who are screwing up America. I also disagree with his world view more than I expected. His views are in lock step with the neocon advocacy of the war in Iraq, and he sees little abuse of power by the conservative regime. (  ) jpsnow | Mar 2, 2008 | Goldberg takes another popular shot at idiots he thinks are ruining America. I wish there were citations, so you know where his quotes are coming from. And, of course, you can quibble with what number he gives people. I doubt Mary Mapes (#14) is as scary as Ward Churchill (#72). Mapes is out of a job, Churchill has the aura of scholarly respectability. And he tends towards the cultural filth: Ludacris, Paris Hilton, and Eminem. I like Eminem, he's joking, and, you don't have to listen to him - nor must you let him affect how you act in society. But what is lacking are politicians, federal politicians. These are scary guys because they have power over everyone. Nut-jobs like Barney Frank, Charles Schumer, and Hilary Clinton - people who can march us down the road to socialism and destruction (they aren't mutually exclusive) aren't listed. True there are idiots like Maxine Waters, Al Gore is mentioned as a dishonest fellow, Ted Kennedy shown to be a meanie, but, I could fill this book up with 100 crypto-socialists in the government. Still, it is an entertaining read. The first 54-pages are quite good, laying out his philosophy on what is ruining America. Goldberg comes off as what they now call a "classic liberal." Individual rights filtered through social mores, but social mores not restricting individual rights. Now liberalism is defined as the minority ruling over the majority, because the minority is always right, because it is oppressed by the majority and ipso facto righteous. A victim. But I talk too much. ( )1  tuckerresearch | Feb 11, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
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| Book description |
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The number one New York Times bestselling author of Bias delivers another bombshell—this time aimed at . . .
100 People Who Are Screwing Up America
No preaching. No pontificating. Just some uncommon sense about the things that have made this country great—and the culprits who are screwing it up.
Bernard Goldberg takes dead aim at the America Bashers (the cultural elites who look down their snobby noses at "ordinary" Americans) . . . the Hollywood Blowhards (incredibly ditzy celebrities who think they're smart just because they're famous) . . . the TV Schlockmeisters (including the one whose show has been compared to a churning mass of maggots devouring rotten meat) . . . the Intellectual Thugs (bigwigs at some of our best colleges, whose views run the gamut from left wing to far left wing) . . . and many more.
Goldberg names names, counting down the villains in his rogues' gallery from 100 all the way to 1—and, yes, you-know-who is number 37. Some supposedly "serious" journalists also made the list, including the journalist-diva who sold out her integrity and hosted one of the dumbest hours in the history of network television news. And there are those famous miscreants who have made America a nastier place than it ought to be—a far more selfish, vulgar, and cynical place.
But Goldberg doesn't just round up the usual suspects we have come to know and detest. He also exposes some of the people who operate away from the limelight but still manage to pull a lot of strings and do all sorts of harm to our culture. Most of all, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America is about a country where as long as anything goes, as one of the good guys in the book puts it, sooner or later everything will go.
This is serious stuff for sure. But Goldberg will also make you laugh as he harpoons scoundrels like the congresswoman who thinks there aren't enough hurricanes named after black people, and the environmentalist to the stars who yells at total strangers driving SUVs—even though she tools around the country in a gas-guzzling private jet.
With Bias, Bernard Goldberg took us behind the scenes and exposed the way Big Journalism distorts the news. Now he has written a book that goes even further. This time he casts his eye on American culture at large—and the result is a book that is sure to become the voice of all those Americans who feel that no one is speaking for them on perhaps the most vital issue of all: the kind of country in which we want to live.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:13 -0400)
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