Neverending Thread 2011

I'm back!!!!  Or more to the point, it's back.  Yes it has taken me far to long to start this blog entry.  For those that are new to the page a brief description, the Neverending Thread is my list of books that I read over a calendar year.  Usually I will start with one in the initial entry (this entry right here) then add books to the comments as the year progresses.  For those that are Multiply members it is easy to keep up, a new comment moves the thread to the top of their update feed, for those that aren't I tend to tag the thread so it can be reached from my blog's homepage. 

Disclaimers out of the way, it is a little late in the year to be finishing my first book, but as I said in the past we had that little issue of delivery from Amazon (actually a few issues, one order that didn't arrive and a subsequent order the post office decided to keep for a few days before making available, thankfully I didn't order during Super Bowl week or I might never have gotten it the way everything shuts down here).   But after lots of sputs and starts, and the issue of finding time to read we have our first completed book for 2011, "Idiot America" by Charles P Pierce.  Since I am one to provide links to my reading material, I believe this is called for http://www.amazon.com/Idiot-America-Stupidity-Became-Virtue/dp/0767926153/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297000110&sr=8-1 . 

I could talk about this book and what I liked or didn't like, but that isn't what I do, I just list the reading material, Amazon and other outlets do a far better job regarding book reviews than I could, so I will not infringe on their territory.  Suffice it to say if you are a conservative, I got better than even money you will hate it and if you are a liberal better than even money that you like it, though I would argue for all of the wrong reasons, many of which are why it is titled "Idiot America" to begin with.

Rather than a book review I will steal a paragraph from the book's afterword, one that kind of stuck with me. The book's afterward deals in part with the Glenn Beck phenomenon, because Beck's show wasn't nearly as popular when the book was first written, and how the mainstream media has treated his show.  From the book....

     :"Journalism almost fails here.  The people  - and the person leading them - are utterly out of their minds.   I do not need to find three sources for this.  I do not need to find someone to say, well, some of them are only sort of out of their minds.  If I see a guy walking down the street with a duck on his head, I can write that I saw a guy walking down the street with a duck on his head.  I don't have to find someone to say they saw a guy walking down the street with a duck on his head, and I particularly don't need to find someone on the other side who will say, no, what you saw was a duck walking down the street with a guy on his ass.  I am not obligated to treat transparent lunacy as though it were worthy of respect simply because it happens to be popular.  I am not obligated to be that nice a person.  And neither are you."


     That is as close to a review as you will get from me on this page so enjoy.  As for me, time to crack open another book.