Who's Looking Out for You?

Oct 8, 2003: As I've said before, I always enjoy reading O'Reilly's books. Some things he says I say, "Boy, you got that right", other things I have to shake my head and say, "Bill, you really don't get it". Same with this book.

The purpose of this book is to determine who really has your best interests at heart. According to Bill, not too many people. Although I don't think he specifically says it, he gives me the impression that a lot of people have an entitlement attitude and truly feel that lots of people are out to take care of them. Among the people and entities that don't care one bit about you are: politicians, the court system, corporate America (specifically those that want to sell you stuff), celebrities, and the church.

I show more understand his arguments, but where he misses the boat is that he expects corporations, politicians, and celebrities to be moral, ethical, and social beacons from which we (and our children) to learn. Not so, Bill. That should be taught at home and at school. I do expect it from the courts and churches. He's right about that.

In each chapter he gives examples of what's right and wrong about that particular topic. As I said, he does make you think. He made my case for why I disagree with him much stronger, but he gave me some good examples of things I agree with him on. Good book. show less

A bit dated, but interesting nonetheless. Not taking into account if I agree or disagree with what he says, but everything is presented reasonably and reads well. He obviously makes himself look good, I mean, it’s his own book so it’d be pretty dumb if he didn’t, but he also shared mistakes he’s made. So the whole thing comes off honest and forthcoming even if that may not be entirely true throughout. And I’m not saying it is or it isn’t, I’m just generalizing. Also, strangely enough, even though I talked about it being a bit dated, even though a lot of the names would be different today, a lot of it still really applies.

I thought this book was great and I feel it should be read by everyone.

Yes, Bill O'Reilly is opinionated. Yes, he goes after certain people with a vengence, and yes he can be described as a consumate conservative. But as he states in his book, it is his right and it must be respected. I agree with most of what Bill O'Reilly writes. I find that he is factual, not because I know what he knows (God knows I don't) but he backs up his statements. My wife did not seem to like this book because O'Reilly mixes clips of his show both on TV and the Radio Factor and she feels that she can get all the information on these shows, and not have to read them here. Fair enough! But I didn't read it that way. O'Reilly pointed out certain individuals show more behavior and why he feels that they are not looking out for you, then he backs it up with an interview he had either on TV or Radio. I would suggest that Choclaholic, maybe take another read.

OK, so where do I disagree with Mr. O'Reilly. Well disagree is a bad word to use because I am not really against him on any issue. As we all know, Bill O'Reilly is deeply religious, and I definitely respect that. He also, does not shove his religion down our throats in this book, and I highly respect that too. He would like to see an America that goes back to basics on religion like our founding fathers meant it to be in their time. The problem I have here is that Bill does not consider the fact that we are evolving. He also mixes religion with spirituality. Sorry Bill, but I do not need to go to Church to commune with my God. I also don't think that my God is at all interested in the petty rituals the institution called Church instills into the parishoners to mindlessly follow. Close to the end of the book Bill gives some good advice about being independent and having individual thought. I guess it starts here with me Bill. I feel that the real reason 9/11 happened is because a certain few individuals were angry that we don't follow their rituals. I could go on a serious rant here but I won't. I do feel however, that Bill is right about how he sees the degeneration of America and that we need to start seeing it as well.

The last few chapters of this book gives great advice in the humblest of ways. Bill O'Reilly uses his own mistakes to point out the positive and to warn us not to commit those same mistakes. show less

I really tried to keep an open mind while reading this and, truthfully, there are some points upon which I agree. But O'Reilly is such a narcissistic, sanctimonious jackass that it's hard for me to care.

Like Bill's past books, Who's Looking Out for You? isn't wretched or anything. There's just not really any deep insight in it- unless you really didn't already know that corporations are out to make money hand over fist, ethics be damned, and politicians are mostly self-serving scumbags whose actual concern for the citizen is inversely proportional to how much they profess to care (i.e. Hillary). I bought this at the airport, and it got me through the flight; it did, so I guess it was a success to that extent.

Pretty good book by the surprisingly moderate Bill O'Reilly. He uses some material you may have read in one of Michael Savage's books concerning the NAMBLA. However, it is overall, a good book.