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November 19, 2004

From the Bookshelf / Required Reading

Today, during the first half of my lunch hour, I reached the last page of John Stossel's Give Me a Break, my heart a little bit warmer from the reading. The book, clocking in at just under 300 pages, traces Stossel's rise from nobody to co-anchor of ABC's 20/20, all the while lambasting general stupidity from each side of the political aisle.

I order you to read it (and, were I a progressive liberal, would use the power of the state to make you do so, even though it would undermine my own cause).

If you're a right-winger, you'll love it as Stossel rips into the central-planning left. If you're a left-winger, you'll love it as Stossel tears the oh-so-moral right-wing a new one over issues such as prostitution, drug use, and assisted suicide.

If you voted for the Green Party, well, you're dumb. Capitalism stumbles from time to time, but it wasn't government that busted Enron. The market works; the market corrects. On top of it all, Nader is a wack-job.

I mean, seriously, in interviews with Stossel, Ralph Nader has declared carpeting a danger to our nation's health.

"Rugs are dirt collectors, and dirt collectors mean indoor air pollution."

This, you see, is why some of us clean our homes. With vacuum cleaners. Made by nasty capitalist pig dogs.

If you're an uber-feminist, you're in for it too, as Stossel addresses topics such as sexual harassment and the differences between the sexes (hint: if what is in our pants is different, why can't the more complex bundle of neurons in our skulls be too?).

"My gender-neutral parenting didn't take. I threw balls to my daughter, and she drew faces on them."

Basically, if you're anything but mostly libertarian, you're going to spend half the book cheering and half the book realizing that Stossel thinks you're an idiot. There is some merit to the criticisms that Stossel sounds like a talk radio host when he rails against the "totalitarian left" - but don't blame Stossel: controlling moral behavior is one thing - controlling economic life is everything. As Hayek wrote:

"Economic control is not merely control of a sector of human life which can be separated from the rest: it is the control of the means for all our ends."

On the other hand, when I read Sean Hannity's praise of Stossel on the book jacket, I can only assume that Mr. Hannity didn't actually read it (and, sadly, there are only a few pages with pictures for him to look at and say "Ooh ahhh").

Seriously, though, check it out. Realize how wrong you are about so many things. It'll be good for you!

My monkey says so.