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Lacks substance and citations

Glenn Beck's popularity or, some would say, notoriety has sky-rocketed since the inception of his Fox News program, a program fueled by a distrust of and disgust with the newly appointed Obama administration. But Beck has had a sizable following prior to this, hosting a successful (though less dramatic) program on Headline News for some time. This book was written during this time and is most likely still representative of Beck's views now, serving as an introduction to and understanding of Beck's thoughts. The book contains 22 chapters, ranging from topics as important as "America's Oil Dependence: The Peak of Stupidity," in which Beck argues that energy independence is necessary to avoid a catastrophe, to the trivial "Blind Dating: Playing the Powerball of Love," the primary point being that blind or internet based/initiated dating is dumb. Throughout the book, Beck attempts to bombard his readers with attempts at witty humor which are usually annoying, occasionally funny (See his own "online" dating profiles on p.75), sometimes tactless (e.g., making fun of Oprah's weight). The pages are filled with colorful sidebars under titles such as "A.D.D. Moment" and "Liberal Brain Teaser." Considering that the book doesn't have a core thesis, consisting of a hodgepodge of issues grouped into one book, it's not feasible to give a full book overview, so I'll try to just highlight what I think are the key portions of the book.Beck believes in Global Warming, that is, he believes that the earth is warming, but he disagrees with the majority in being skeptical as to its cause; he doesn't think there's sufficient evidence that humans are responsible. He notes that there have been several trends in climatology that have been false in the past (e.g., global cooling in the 70s) and proposes a free market solution as the best and only practical one available. Political correctness (PC) is not only rampant in the US, according to Beck, but it's greatly associated with Communist/Marxist ideologies, leading Beck to conclude: "I believe that political correctness is the biggest threat this nation faces today" (160). Examples of PC include correcting students with purple ink instead of red and constantly flooding students with praise rather than "telling it like it is." Beck also argues that the UN is a useless bureaucratic institution filled with nepotism and greed. The UN is ineffective and moreover doesn't believe a superpower like the US should exist. These claims are mostly supported by references to events taking place in the Congo between 1999 and 2001 and the UN's inaction in Rwanda in 1994. Regarding poverty, he believes that the claims are significantly overstated and that the mainstream media contributes to this. He claims that 9 out of 10 people living in poverty aren't living hungry and that a staggeringly low number (0.03%) of Americans are "chronically" homeless. Although he's known by some as being an anti-immigration racist, Beck doesn't go into much detail about illegal immigrants in the book, preferring to spend his chapter on the subject dealing with what he believes is undergirding the lack of illegal immigration control: the rich's desire for a one country continent. Lastly, Beck believes that politicians are slimy creatures, doing and saying only that which makes them more electable, and he claims that the push for a national minimum wage is simply an example of this.In evaluating the book, there is one adjective that I think sums up its nature--bad. The primary problem is that there are no citations of any kind in the book. This may not be a problem for a book or article in, say, philosophy in which one is dealing in the abstract. Unfortunately for Beck, this book isn't philosophically based; it's empirically based. On most pages Beck is referring to some _fact_ or _study_ that buttresses his position. For instance, in support of some of his beliefs about income inequality and the efficiency of the free market, Beck claims that the percentage of inflation adjusted households making over 75,000 has increased by 10.1% from 1974 to 2004 (84-85). In another area, he attempts to expose the futility of personal (and liberal) solutions to global warming; he claims that the increase in China's coal use by 2020 will send up an amount of CO2 equivalent to 3 billion Expeditions driving 15,000 miles a day (7). These types of references litter Beck's book and support his core arguments or positions, and, of course, they may be true and may lend weight to his views, but without citations the reader is unable to know where Beck is playing loose with the evidence or where he misinterprets a study, etc. For a book like this, consisting of empirically based political arguments, this is enough to make it worthy of 1 star. But there are other problems with the book as well. It's filled with inane chapters like "Sleepytime! The Weekend Movie Rental," in which he attempts to comically refer to his distaste for romantically based chick flicks and advise men how they can get around or use them to get sex, to "How to Remember Names, by Glenn--something or other," which is just a chapter about how he can't remember names with an attempt to explain, humorously, how to avoid this pitfall. Even when he may be on to something within this arena, such as in his chapter about not emphasizing certain standards regarding a girl's body weight, he states, "Let's say your 15 year old daughter is better than average; she's 5'6" and weighs 125 pounds" (64), a statement that clearly puts a value judgment, "better," on how much a girl weighs rather than using "bigger," which isn't a value judgment. Furthermore, Beck has a propensity to reference information that is irrelevant to his case. For instance, in his chapter on avoiding political correctness regarding Islam (which is an especially poignant topic considering the recent shootings at Fort Hood), Beck refers to some reports, etc. (no reference, of course) that indicate Arizona has been a hot spot for terrorists to congregate, but there is no connection given to the point at hand, namely, Islamic terrorists going unchecked because of political correctness. Lastly, Beck has a tendency to simplify complex problems. His _answer_ to the _problem_ of disparity of political views amongst University Professors is a good example, I think; he states that the tenure system should simply be removed and that would solve it.This book isn't totally devoid of merits, however. Beck's discussion of child molesters seems to me to be a thoughtful discussion of a difficult issue; he's at least correct that reform is needed in that area. Also, his claim that minimum wages should be left to the states, not the federal government where political points are the priority, is a decent, if still debatable, point, for wage value varies between states. There are other positives to the book here and there. But, though I'm a novice regarding politics, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone wanting an introduction to and/or conservative perspective on the issues discussed in this book.