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Let's get this out of the way: David Rakoff is not David Sedaris. When you hear him being incredibly smart and funny on This American Life, you invariably think, "Oh, it's David Sedaris." But if you listen closely, you can tell the difference. Rakoff, while no less witty or nasal, is a little more disappointed. In his first collection--a series of pieces for public radio and for various magazines--he positively revels in his world-weariness. Whether he's investigating the Loch Ness monster, attending a comedy festival in Aspen, Colorado, visiting a New Age retreat hosted by Steven Seagal, or just, you know, playing Freud in a department-store window at Christmastime, Rakoff tends to get comically depleted. Watching the comic Dan Castellaneta, for example, he writes, "It's a bad sign when I start counting the unused props on stage. Only two wigs, one stool, an easel, and a dropcloth to go. I begin to pray to an unfeeling God to please make Castellaneta multitask." In a piece where he attempts to climb a mountain (well... a very short hill), Rakoff immediately nips any Sierra Club fantasies in the bud: "I do not go outdoors. Not more than I have to. As far as I'm concerned, the whole point of living in New York City is indoors. You want greenery? Order the spinach." But in the end, what makes him such a terrific writer is that he's not only onto everyone else, he's onto himself. No wonder his visit to a kibbutz becomes the occasion for some supremely self-conscious amusement: "I know I sound like the Central Casting New Yorker I've turned myself into with single-minded determination when I say this, but the main problem with working in the fields is that the sun is just always shining." --Claire Dederer
Book Description
From This American Life alum David Rakoff comes a hilarious collection that single-handedly raises self-deprecation to an art form. Whether impersonating Sigmund Freud in a department store window during the holidays, climbing an icy mountain in cheap loafers, or learning primitive survival skills in the wilds of New Jersey, Rakoff clearly demonstrates how he doesn’t belong–nor does he try to. In his debut collection of essays, Rakoff uses his razor-sharp wit and snarky humor to deliver a barrage of damaging blows that, more often than not, land squarely on his own jaw–hilariously satirizing the writer, not the subject. Joining the wry and the heartfelt, Fraud offers an object lesson in not taking life, or ourselves, too seriously.
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Wherever he is, David Rakoff is a fish out of water. Whether impersonating Sigmund Freud in a department store window during the holidays, climbing an icy mountain in cheap loafers, playing an evil modeling agent on a daytime soap opera, or learning primitive survival skills in the wilds of New Jersey, Rakoff doesn't belong. Nor does he try to. Still, he continually finds himself off in the far-flung hinterlands of our culture, notebook or microphone in hand, hoping to conjure that dyed-in-the-wool New York condescension.
And Rakoff tries to be nasty; heaven knows nothing succeeds like the cheap sneer, but he can't quite help noticing that these are actual human beings he's writing about. In his attempts not to pull any punches, the most damaging blows, more often than not, land squarely on his own jaw -- hilariously satirizing the writer, not the subject.
And therein lies David Rakoff's genius and his burgeoning appeal. The wry and the heartfelt join in his prose to resurrect that most neglected of literary virtues: wit.
Customer Reviews:
funny!.......2007-05-01
This author is one of my favorites. Laugh out loud ( really!) hilarious!! How refreshing to curl up with a book like this at the end of a rough day, and laugh along with David Rakoff at the various "ridiculousnesses" of this life!! Lisa G in CT
Sessions of Valse with Readability.......2007-01-14
I love books of essays. They're the fast food of reading. Wolf down one essay, and resume your quotidian toiling. In this realm, Rakoff's FRAUD is not freeze dried noodles in a broth of water and MSG, but it's not sirloin cheeseburger either. It's something in between. To be sure, I was not afflicted by a case of "I can't put the book down".
This book is not an easy read by any standard. In terms of bombast and sesquipedalian delivery, Rakoff resides atop the food chain. But it's precisely the creative prose that kept me perusing these marginally compelling stories. It's somewhat unfortunate because it's should be about the tales, not the delivery. You might not need a dictionary to follow Rakoff along this labyrinth of expressive techniques, but you will require some reading double-takes to keep up. I recommend the book for adequate entertainment value and unique phraseology.
Some Good, Some Bad, and Some Funny.......2007-01-13
One thing should be made perfectly clear: this collection of fifteen dryly humorous essays has a very distinct audience, and if you're not a part of it, your enjoyment is likely to be lessened. The ideal reader of this book is a well-off white city dweller (ideally a Manhattanite) who likes to listen to NPR (especially "This American Life"), reads the New York Times magazine, Salon.com, etc., and is a fan of David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, Amy Bloom, and Dave Eggers -- all of whom blurbed this book. This is not to say that _only_ readers who fit this profile will enjoy the essays, but they certainly seem pitched for that particular audience. Since I'm at least somewhat in that audience, but far from an exemplar of it, it should come as no surprise that I found the essays fairly mixed.
About half the essays traffic in the tried and true "fish out of water" framework, in which the quasi-effete Rakoff is sent to cover some event or do something that's totally at odds with his nature: "In New England Everyone Calls You Dave" (in which he visits New Hampshire to climb a small mountain with a local character), "Including One Called Hell" (in which he attends a New Age seminar fronted by noted thespian and lama Steven Seagal), "Hidden People" (in which he visits Iceland to talk to people about faeries and gnomes), "The Best Medicine" (in which he visits Aspen to cover the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival), "I'll Take the Low Road" (in which he visits Scotland to go to Loch Ness), "Back to the Garden" (in which he attends a wilderness survival school), and "Tokyo Story" (in which he revisits Tokyo, the site of his 1986 nervous breakdown). Some of these are quite good, especially the New Age seminar and wilderness survival ones (although in the latter, his behavior is notably at odds with how he casts himself in other essays). Others are rather lackluster, especially the visits to Iceland, Loch Ness, and Japan -- which read like standard issue travel magazine articles.
The other half of the essays are more personal, as Rakoff mines his own life for material. Here we learn of formative experiences: "Arise, Ye Wretched of the Earth" (the teenage stint on an Israeli kibbutz which leads to his realization that he's gay ), "Lush Life" (his stint as an overworked, underpaid New York publishing scene editorial assistant), "Before and After Science" (his youthful stint working as a teenager in a Swensen's franchise owned by a Greek couple), "Lather, Rinse, Repeat" (his one-time appearance on a soap opera), "Extraordinary Alien" (his application for green card -- Rakoff is Canadian), "Christmas Freud" (his seasonal stint as a department store window prop), and "I Used to Bank Here, But That Was Long, Long Ago" (his history with sperm banking). These are all well-written, generally witty reflections that are enjoyable if you are the kind of reader who finds the introspection of others interesting fodder. Others will find his autobiographical stylings just so much navel-gazing. I found myself caught in the middle between some genuinely funny lines and some genuinely self-pitying whining (especially in "Lush Life").
Despite the reflective nature of a good part of the material, Rakoff is a humorist at heart -- albeit of the neurotic Woody Allen variety. While he's got plenty of cynical venom for others (although not nearly as much as Sedaris), he dilutes this with heavy doses of self-deprecation. And like Allen, sometimes he's exceedingly funny, but often, a little of his affected style often goes a long way and attempts at profundity veer dangerously close to parody. Some readers may find his highbrow vocabulary somewhat off-putting and pretentious, I didn't notice it that much one way or the other. But be forewarned that the essays are sprinkled with allusions to Baudelaire, Myrna Loy, Preston Sturges, Robert Moses, and other personages not necessarily familiar to the Average Joe. On the whole, these are essays worth dipping into, and if you like one, you'll probably find at least others you'll like. It's not brilliant stuff by any means, but worth trying.
A collection of many hits.......2006-12-29
Rakoff excels as a writer through his considerable skill at seeing the underlying truths of some pretty weird situations, with a jaded, crusty, yet caring New Yorkers view of the world. He's also one of the wittiest and cleverest writers alive. That's what makes most of these essays excellent.
For example, I couldn't get enough of his account of a long weekend retreat at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies where none other than action movie star Steven Seagal was the featured lecturer. Leave it to Rakoff to observe that for a bunch of people eager to "rid the world of pain", they seem to do precious little of it in terms of actual charitable work, and seem to prefer not to be bothered by any world events of this actual pain that might upset their New Age bliss. Seagal comes across as both a remarkable showman and teacher, and callous and self-centered B-movie actor in a rather insightful essay that was quite hilarious and entertaining.
Rakoff's experience portraying a live Sigmund Freud in a department story Christmas display is great essay material even in the hands of a average high school student, but Rakoff goes well beyond the obvious laughs to explain how he almost feels he can actually perform psychoanalysis on his live "patients" and his slight resentment of Allen Ginsberg considering to actually play himself at a different display. Like so many of the essays, Rakoff goes well beneath the surface of a unique situation to explain the truth and logic driving the situation underneath. It's quite impressive.
Plenty of other essays on Rakoff's travels and early life experiences are really quite thoughtful and entertaining. I realize I'm not in agreement with many other reviewers here, but I found the last two essays, which dealt with his successful battle with Hodgkin's Disease, to be easily the weakest two in the book. Rakoff readily admits his isn't quite sure what to make of being a Hodgkin's Disease survivor, and this lack of clarity and direction seems to sink the last two essays. You'd think this would be when Rakoff would be at his most powerful, but in fact, it's the opposite. Still, all but the last two essays are good to excellent.
The enigma that is Dave Rackoff (and the rest of us).......2006-12-27
I just can't get enough David Rackoff!
After reading his "Don't Get Too Comfortable," I had to read more. Rackoff's dry observations, incisive eye and lacerating wit combine to make a reading experience that is at once enjoyable and challenging.
"Fraud," as its title implies contains 15 about human fakery and self-delusion. There are tales about Iceland's hidden people who live in rocks, the loch Ness monster, a stint as Sigmund Freud in a holiday store display and the author's long-ago battle with Hodgkin's disease. It is a book at how we love to fool ourselves, seeing ourselves as much more important than we are.
But, Rackoff being Rackoff, "Fraud" is about the author's own misperceptions and petty biases as much as that of others. A story about a group of survival nuts teaching others to live off the land could have been a humorous send -up of the silliness of this undertaking. Instead, it describes the utter seriousness and humility of these people, and contrasts it with "real" urban life. A tale about an aikido workshop featuring Steven Segal is fascinating and complex. The star tells various versions of his life story, shows up late and leaves early to his sessions and calmly deflects the anger of his customers with some quasi-profound mystical mumbo jumbo. Who is the fraud and who the true believer? If persons believe nonsense, are they frauds or innocents? Is self-deception a human survival strategy? Are any of us truly innocent? Or is gullibility a sin?
Rackoff offers no easy answers. Indeed, he offers no answers at all, just narrative and suspicions. I may be reading more into this volume than was intended. Some will read far less. It's Rackoff's genius that allows enjoyment to occur at both levels.
A clue to Rackoff's insight and method is in his first story, which is about a Christmas Day trek up Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire. This is a mountain I know. Though not one of New Hampshire's taller peaks, it is no walk in the park. The upper slopes are rocky and slick, even in the summer. Rackoff claims to have reached the summit in cheap, plastic shoes at a time when snow covered the trails. Yet he does not discuss the difficulty of the climb itself. His focus is on his own hopeful achievement of manliness by the attempt. By this telling, Rackoff shows the complexity of his focus ion on fraud. Who but the most intrepid of hikers would summit Monadnock in the winter without mentioning the difficulty of the climb? The irony is that Rackoff bemoans his inability to share the macho vulgarities of his hetero climbing mates. Yet the success of his effort belies his concern. What is fraud? What is self-deception? When did manliness become conflated with sexual orientation?
A fascinating and always entertaining look at a man, a man looking at his society, and a man (embedded in society) looking back at himself.
Average customer rating:
- Check and see
- Suprise! Suprise!
- Prescient St Augustine?
- Something of a disappointment
- Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy..
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History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
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ASIN: 2913621066 |
Product Description
`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.
Customer Reviews:
Check and see.......2007-06-21
I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.
Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22
Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.
Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05
We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:
a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;
b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;
c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.
Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:
It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.
- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.
- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.
Fomenko goes by the following axioms:
- Chronology is the basis of history;
- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;
- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;
- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;
- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;
- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.
Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?
The Russians:
Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.
The Westerners:
Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.
The Chinese:
Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.
The Arabs:
Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.
The Divinity:
Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.
According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.
St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."
Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09
After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.
However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:
- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.
I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.
The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.
It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?
Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.
Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30
If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?
Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.
Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..
Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.
Amazon.com
Horace Freeland Judson, author of The Eighth Day of Creation, eloquently examines the nature and causes of scientific fraud in The Great Betrayal. Although the process of science has built-in checks and balances such as peer review and paper refereeing, Judson calls these "moribund" and asks "whether in fact and to what extent science really is self-correcting." After all, success and good results are sometimes valued above all in science, especially by the agencies or corporations that provide the funding for research. Upon examining hundreds of cases of suspected scientific fraud, Judson answers blind praise of science's self-policing with the terse statement, "Their claims about science are unscientific."
To make his case, Judson begins with some of the giants of science: Mendel, Darwin, Pasteur, Freud. It turns out that each of these men fudged their data in one way or another, whether by omitting numbers that didn't fit desired results, or manipulating photographs, or not using experimental controls. Judson recognizes that there are difficulties in examining historical scientists' behavior through a modern lens, and he deals with the associated complexities by asking tough questions: What if their cheating led to a correct answer? Where is the line between intuition and lying?
The Great Betrayal goes on to describe enough modern cases of scientific fraud to leave readers reeling. The most damning revelations in the book are those showing how whistle-blowers are treated by the scientific establishment, and Judson's showcase for this is Margot O'Toole, who called for correction or retraction of a paper co-authored by noted biologist David Baltimore and was subsequently vilified for her actions. The so-called "Baltimore case" became one of the ugliest and most revealing controversies in late-20th-century science. In the end, Judson offers hope that science may become truly open through electronic publishing. Whether the free exchange of criticism offered by the Internet will refresh science remains to be seen, but without learning from its defects, Judson writes, this great endeavor will ultimately fail. --Therese Littleton
Book Description
Fraud permeates all types of institutions today and now the world of science, the last bastion of respect and trust, is no exception. Dozens of cases have been uncovered in the past quarter-century-and the headlines continue. We can no longer shrug off fraud in science as the work of aberrant individual scientists, Horace Freeland Judson argues. Instead, we must look for its causes and its remedies in the structures and cultures of the scientific institutions themselves. Judson carefully details all types of scientific fraud and how they happen; considers the self-government of the sciences, including peer review and the refereeing of papers; and exposes the failures of academic, governmental, and legal responses. He also shows how the movement toward Internet publication of papers promises remarkable new checks on fraud and suggests how we can restore and defend the integrity of the greatest monument of human endeavor- the sciences.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent coverage of the Baltimore fraud case.......2007-02-21
Judson has done an excellent job in exposing intellectual fraud in general ,as well as concentrating specifically on the attempt by David Baltimore to cover up the extremely shoddy,error filled work of a colleage,Imanishi-Kari.Baltimore had agreed to put his name on a paper that he had not read carefully,if at all. Margot O'Toole exposed the paper,showing that it was riddled with errors.Baltimore engaged in an attempted coverup ,believing that his great reputation,based on his being a Nobel Prize winner with a number of accomplishments ,would serve to sidetrack any call for the retraction of the paper.An excellent summary of this scientific fiasco is given on p.242 by Judson when he cites the final judgment of another Nobelist,the late Howard Temin:" David's misconduct was-When an experiment is challenged no matter who it is challenged by it's your responsibility to check...When you publish something you are responsible for it.And one of the great strengths of American science...is that even the most senior professor,if challenged by the lowliest technician or graduate student,is required to treat them seriously...It is one of the most fundamental aspects of science in America".
In fact,what Temin is stating is not just the most fundamental aspect of American science.Transparency,the requirement that results be checked and rechecked before the publication of an article in a scientific journal,is the most fundamental aspect of science.Error correction is a necessary condition for any field to be called "scientific ".Fields or disciplines that do not prevent or correct error filled articles from being published or that do not retract such articles once they are exposed ,like most social sciences,economics and psychology in particular,are not considered hard science.
Judson would be a demagogue, if he could get your attention........2006-01-03
I would have given this no stars if it were an option.
The first 20 pages of this book bored and insulted me. Judson drones on about every fraud known to mankind, but only occasionally scientific fraud. He seems to hope that if we hear enough examples of fraud in the world, we will get fired up and join him in a lynching.
His tone is condescending and assumes that you already agree with him. This is not the type of academician that you could hope to have a meaningful conversation with. He laces his information with references to "the epidemic" of fraud and nobody being "immune" to it, as if by the weight of these descriptive terms you will be swept into his inevitably correct conclusions. I suspect that Judson would have presented a more objective book if he had more worthwhile information to offer.
Tendentious at best.......2004-12-30
Judson is an academic manque who wrote an interesting if overly pretentious and self-agrandizing history of molecular biology. Unfortunately this book, which, as Judson states early on, could not find a publisher, would have been better left unpublished. This desultory history of scientific fraud simply rehearses what has been better said elswhere. The standard fraud cases - from Newton to Pasteur to Freud to Darsee to Baltimore - are given a superficial treatment. Especially egregious is the hatchet job on Baltimore and Imanashi-Kari. Anyone wanting to find out how shoddy and partisan his treatment of the later affair is ought to read the thoughtful and well researched "The Baltimore Case" by Daniel Kevles. Since Judson seems to regard himself as a purveyor of scientific ethics in a time of lapsing moral values in the scientific enterprise, one can only hope that the scientific community can protect themselves from such scrutiny. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.
Superficial, shallow, naive .......2004-12-18
First of all, this is not really a book about fraud in science. The analysis of specific cases of scientific fraud is thin and focused mostly on procedural matters; actual science behind each case is almost completely missing from Judson's analysis. His analysis of fraud as a phenomenon is even more superficial. For all the 400-plus pages of pomp, he fails to look at the obvious: what drives scientists to work in science? A quick look at a randomly selected group of postgraduate students would have revealed that there is a very broad distribution of reasons, ranging from the very global (desire to better understand the surrounding reality) to practical (making a living), to idiosyncratic personal reasons (e.g., looking smart in the eyes of the opposite sex). Where there is a distribution of motivations, there will be a distribution of rules by which people play - including some people bending the rules unacceptably far. Sociology of science is probably as complex as of the society at large; and as in any complex group, fraud is unavoidable.
Which brings us to the second point. Judson's real reason for writing this book seems to be the critique of the ways by which science is funded and by which scientific publishing works. He uses the existence of fraud to attack the existing system of scientific publishing (formal, peer-reviewed, commercially run journals) and claims that a transition to an arXiv-style system will all but eliminate scientific fraud. Unfortunately, his arguments are thouroughly unconvincing. The way scientific results are reported and published may well have a second-order effect on the incidence of fraud, but it is hardly the determining factor of the latter. Risk-vs-benefit factors - what one has to gain by publishing high-profile papers - seems to have much more to do with the occurence of fraud. Because the scientific establishment is not a uniform, Mertonian-type system, there will always be cheaters. The only reason they have not used arXiv so far is that currently one has nothing to gain by submitting a fraudulent publication there. This would change as soon as arXiv became the primary mode of scientific publishing.
Judson's recipe seems to be based on an over-simplified, neo-positivist philosophy of science, with its inherent assumption that scientific community is an ideal, uniform collection of people without agendas, personal ambitions, or theories to prove - what one might call an "ideal-gas approximation" of the scientific community. This might be to a limited degree applicable to biomedical research, which consists largely of data mining, but it completely breaks down in natural sciences. His arguments for open publishing are thus largely ideologically driven, and in his push for the desired conclusion he contradicts both the logic and himself. Of known cases of fraud, how many were caught by people scrutinizing someone else's published papers? Perhaps 10%? Most were discovered by chance - by a postdoc digging up old lab books; a technician noticing dodgy practises; by historians going through old raw data; by an author accidentally coming across an article identical to his own. This seems to be Judson's conclusion as well. Why does he think that community-scrutinized arXiv publishing would be more self-correcting than peer-reviewed traditional publishing? Both logic and experience suggest otherwise. Peer review may be costly, awkward, and inefficient, but it does keep junk science in journals with impact factors <1 - which noone reads. Without it, scientific publishing will quickly become awash with self-posted garbage (for a proof, look at the percentage of garbage on the Internet - it's hardly lower than in published journals!) Judson evades this obvious fact by saying that even garbage papers eventually get published in peer-reviewed journals, conveniently omitting that in most cases they get published in journals which have no impact.
To be sure, the book does contain a few fresh ideas. The first couple of chapters provide a good discourse in the philosophy of science. Some ideas regarding ArXiv are also quite nice, as long as they are not presented as some magic bullet which will miraculously eliminate scientific fraud. But were these worth reading through 400 pages of naive populism written by someone who, by own admission, has never been a practising scientist? I'd say no.
Examining events, causes, and resolution processes.......2004-12-13
Science as a discipline is not immune to fraud, as Horace Freeland Judson demonstrates in his study The Great Betrayal: Fraud In Science. Judson is the former director of the center for History of Recent Science: his background lends to his survey of dozens of cases where scientific fraud and aberrant scientists have threatened the very reliability and foundations of the scientific process. Chapters chart cases of scientific self-government and cases which came to light, examining events, causes, and resolution processes.
Book Description
The Museum of Hoaxes is a fascinating historical tour of hundreds of documented hoaxes, many collected here for the first time. Read about the curiosities and cons of the most notorious hornswogglers and flimflam men of the nineteenth century; be astounded at the imposters, pretenders, and tricksters of the twentieth.
The Queen of England, Jimmy Carter, the editors of The New York Times-no one is immune to the cunning of history's hoaxers. From the origin of April Fools' Day to the Taco Liberty Bell, from Bigfoot to the War of the Worlds-and filled with photographs and illustrations .
Customer Reviews:
Come for the Jackalope, stay for the fun.......2007-01-13
Great book!
From Pope Joan to pyramid schemes to Piltdown man, this book is full of all those great deceptions from time immemorial.
And the best thing about it is that the book shows in it's easy to read style that from time to time everyone has been hoaxed.
So if P.T. Barnum's suckers are born every minute they nevertheless even made it all the way to the White House and the British Throne.
Great book!
IF YOU ENJOY A GOOD HOAX..........2005-11-07
...then be sure to pick up the book TURN ME ON, DEAD MAN by Andru J. Reeve. It's the true saga of the story behind the infamous "Paul-Is-Dead" hoax of 1969, when millions believed a persistent rumor that Beatle Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash, his death kept a secret while the Beatles replaced him with a lookalike and planted "clues" to his death on subsequent Beatles albums. It's an amazing story and Reeve explores the who-what-and-whys of the story, explaining how this hoax was perpetrated and who was behind it. One of the most talked-about books of the year -- and it's available right now, right here at Amazon.com !!!
"An Amazing Book! I couldn't put it down!" -- Dr. Heritage Smith, folklorist and urban legends historian
Ho hum hoaxes.......2005-08-30
Like many physical museums, Alex Boese's "The Museum of Hoaxes" is comprehensive, well-ordered, but a bit dull. It was a book easy to put down, but offered enough material that it eventually as taken up again. Boese orders the book roughly chronologically, starting with early forgeries such as the Donation of Constantine and the possibly spurious tales of Marco Polo. He moves through the ages, lightly covering well known hoaxes such as the Cardiff Giant, filling in the centuries with hoaxes I had never heard of such as the various newspaper circulation-building hoaxes of the 19th century. One, the Great Moon Hoax of 1835, insisted that a new telescope had the ability to see man-bats and beavers on the moon.
The book moves into the 20th century, discussing the Hitler Diaries hoax, Clifford Irving's hoax biography of Howard Hughes, the Tawana Brawley case and Rosie Ruiz's fake completion of the 1980 Boston marathon. The book also covers the pranks of Alan Abel, Disk Tuck and Jerry Skaggs, whose feats were more about making social statements than in hoaxing for gain or attention. In 1962, in one hilarious episode, Tuck hired pregnant women to hold signs at Nixon rallies reading "Nixon's the One!" Nixon returned the favor on the American public in a less humorous vein when Donald Segretti set up his dirty tricks operation.
TMOH does have failings. It often chops its stories short, giving little follow-up, leaving the reader suspended in mid-air. And while the book does cover crop circles and UFOs, it remains agnostic about the truth of these and other controversial items, perhaps in fear of alienating readers. And for a book on the cleverness and slyness of human beings, it is woefully short of both values; a book on hoaxes should be fun!
TMOH is a straightforward, light introduction to many instances where the average human intellect is deluded by tricksters and wits.
Lightweight Intro to the World of Fakes.......2005-02-21
"Museum of Hoaxes" is a relatively short book collecting some of the most infamous hoaxes of the past 2,000 years. Everything within is given a similar, cursory treatment. That would be acceptable if there were more illustrations; I was surprised to see just how few plates exist in a book dedicated to hoaxes. Without illustrations, many of the hoaxes (such as the Chess Machine) are difficult to fully comprehend. The result is as superficial as a Saturday morning noncredit course at a community college.
Still, I'm glad I bought the book. It *is* a fun read, and a good introduction to the world of hoaxing. I plan to lend it out to my students in order to encourage them to develop skeptical thinking. I expected more coming from the creator of the Museum of Hoaxes website, but the book succeeds within its own modest limits.
For an equally poppy but far more comprehensive look at a related area, check out "Too Good to be True" by Brunvand.
When did you last get conned?.......2005-02-16
This book was a lot better than I thought it would be when I picked it up.I expected it was just going to be a collection of old hoaxes,many of which I was probably somewhat aware of anyway.Such was not the case.This book is an overview of the whole world of hoaxes.First, there are all kinds of dodges,fakes,frauds,flimfam,humbug,imposture,jeu d'esprit,practical jokes,pranks,shams,and on and on.Boese explains all of them and this book collects them all under the umbrella of hoaxes.He starts the book off with a Gullibility Test and the reader is quickly convinced the world is full of this stuff and that we have heard a lot of it for so long that we assume it must be true.Boese tries to explain why people are so prone to believe hoaxes and does a pretty fair job of it.He follows the development of hoaxes from the Middle Ages to the present time.He shows how hoaxes have progressed along with the advance of all forms of communication ;from the early days of storytelling,books,photography,radio,TV,and now the World Wide Web.Maybe the one thing he may have missed is that one time when a hoaxer was tarred and feathered but now he gets off with a tap on the wrist;this must surly contribute the great explosion in hoaxes.He gives a good selection of hoaxes from over the years and of the various types of hoaxes.
For someone who really enjoys digging into hoaxes they'll find included a list of 111 books and other references,that will be a wonderful resource.
Along with all this, he tries to show us how we can look at an issue,and try to determine if a hoax is involved.He gave it a good try, but I'm not sure even he believes that there is any perfect defense against a well thought out and perpeturated hoax.
After reading this book the reader is bound to look at event with a totally different viewpoint.Maybe we will suspect when the masses swallow the hook,line and sinker.The reward will be in "I felt there was something wrong about that!"
If that wasn't enough ;Boese gives his Museum of Hoaxes Web site. I went to it, and it is terrific. This book is just an introduction to it.
Amazon.com
The inimitable Janet Malcolm has previously probed the soft white underbellies of psychiatry, journalism, literary biography, and a half-dozen other disciplines. In The Crime of Sheila McGough, she takes on the legal profession. At first glance this may seem like a ludicrously easy target: who doesn't have his doubts about the vast army of ambulance chasers, shysters, and corporate sharks? But as always, Malcolm has more complicated fish to fry. What fascinates her about the legal system is the endless, agonizing clash of contending narratives. "The transcripts of trials at law--even of routine criminal prosecutions and tiresome civil disputes--are exciting to read," she notes. "They record contests of wit and will that have the stylized structure and dire aura of duels before dawn."
To prove her point, Malcolm has chosen one particular prosecution--or, as the facts seem to indicate, persecution. In 1986 a Virginia attorney named Sheila McGough took on the case of a con artist named Bob Bailes. First she defended this charming chiseler against a charge of bank fraud, and lost; then, two years later, she went to bat for him when he was indicted for a bizarre, insurance-related bunco game. Again she lost, and Bailes--whose tale-spinning amounted to a kind of artistry--remained in the slammer. At this point, most advocates would have moved on. Not McGough: "After her client went to prison, she continued defending him as if nothing had happened.... She remained at his side and fought for him as if he were Alfred Dreyfus, instead of the small-time con man, with an unfortunate medical history and an interesting imagination, that he was." Nothing, it turns out, clogs the machinery of the judicial system more thoroughly than an honest--okay, pathologically honest--attorney.
As McGough continued to fight for her client, she aroused the wrath, and eventually the suspicion, of the court. Surely this nutty crusade must have some hidden agenda. Malcolm makes a strong argument for her subject's innocence: "Veracity was her defining characteristic, like the color of an orange. Her behavior may have been odd, deviant, maddening, but her devotion to the truth--almost like a disease in its helpless literalness--was an inspiriting given." The court, however, thought otherwise. In 1990 McGough was found guilty of 14 counts of felony (most of which made her an accessory to Bailes's depredations) and sentenced to 3 years in prison. Only after her release in 1996 did she enlist the author on her behalf. Unlike previous objects of Malcolm's scrutiny, McGough made little effort to finesse the narrative. All the more remarkable, then, that the most sublime cross-examiner in American letters found her innocent.
The Crime of Sheila McGough is, needless to say, a stinging critique of the legal system. "Without the thinner of common sense," the author insists, "the law is a toxic substance." (Malcolm, who's gotten a liberal serving of legal toxins during the 1980s and 1990s, is surely speaking from experience.) Yet her book is an equally brilliant brief on human behavior (and misbehavior). And as she plunges deeper into the legal labyrinth, her quest for the truth and nothing but the truth leads her to some superb insights about that other form of imaginative advocacy--writing. "The truth," she offers, "does not make a good story; that's why we have art." But in The Crime of Sheila McGough, Malcolm has it both ways. Deliciously witty and almost supernaturally aware, her book is a true crime story in every sense of the phrase. --James Marcus
Book Description
"[N]o other writer tells better stories about the perpetual, the unwinnable, battle between narrative and truth." --The New York Times Book Review
The Crime of Sheila McGough is Janet Malcolm's brilliant exposé of miscarriage of justice in the case of Sheila McGough, a disbarred lawyer recently released from prison. McGough had served 2 1/2 years for collaborating with a client in his fraud, but insisted that she didn't commit any of the 14 felonies she was convicted.
An astonishingly persuasive condemnation of the cupidity of American law and its preference for convincing narrative rather than the truth, this is also a story with an unconventional heroine. McGough is a zealous defense lawyer duped by a white-collar con man; a woman who lives, at the age of 54, with her parents; a journalistic subject who frustrates her interviewer with her maddening literal-mindedness. Spirited, illuminating, delightfully detailed,
The Crime of Sheila McGough is both a dazzling work of journalism and a searching meditation on character and the law.
Customer Reviews:
A Frustrating Book.......2005-03-09
There was a good book in here somewhere, but I found the author's point of view toward the main charachter frustrating. Either offer more analysis of her poor decisions or tell us some more facts to make the reader more sympathetic to the lawyer. But the way the author left it, I felt the lawyer seemed unsympathetic and some of her actions without enough explanaton/justification/analysis to give teh reader some perspective.
The story is somewhat interesting, which manages to carry the book, but the writing left me wanting more.
Misfire.......2002-07-10
Like most of Janet Malcolm's books, "The Crime of Sheila McGough" is well-written enough to be interesting and certainly readable. Unlike her other books, which are often oddly persuasive although demonstrably wrong, or at least ill-fated ("The Journalist and the Murderer," "In the Freud Archives"), "Crime" never really manages to give a clear portrait of its central character, whom Malcolm claims to see as an "exquisite heroine," or the situation she found herself in. Sheila McGough was a defense lawyer for a con artist who wound up being indicted as a conspirator in his schemes, and while Malcolm insists her heroine was not romantically involved with her client nor a criminal, it is hard to disagree with the various attorneys interviewed in the book who characterize McGough as simply in over her head. While it seems unlikely McGough was "framed" or the target of a government conspiracy, as she and her family claim, she does seem to have been ground up in the court system mainly because she didn't really know what she was doing as a lawyer. Malcolm wants her point to be that McGough's dogged defense of her client is particularly unsuited to the legal system in America today, but her sweeping generalizations about the courts seem idiosyncratic and she faults lawyers for thinking of their profession as a career (one wonders what else she would have lawyers do). She keeps insisting her heroine is terrible but lovable, a sort of legal Madame Bovary who is noble in her doomed romantic illusions about the law, but the substance of the book seems as hard to pin down as the con artist McGough went to jail for protecting. Malcolm characterizes a trial as being a duel of narratives, but her own narrative convinces the reader of nothing except that Sheila McGough is indeed exasperating.
For better books by Malcom, read "The Silent Woman: Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath" or "Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession." For better books about court cases which do manage, in the writer's hands, to say something about the human condition, Calvin Trillin's "Killings" is highly recommended.
Thoroughly Biased Writing By a Fine Author.......2001-12-28
Having been interviewed by Ms Malcomb for this book, given that I was personally responsible for the plight of her protagonist, I can say with certainty that she has really missed the truth of this matter. I have read and like a number of her other works, but this book simply ignores by omission the fact that Sheila McGough went to jail for very good reasons. There were many others who were defrauded by her, and it is no fluke or prejudice of our system--as Ms Malcomb avers--that she was found guilty.
For a fine author to have been hoodwinked by Ms McGough shows how good she really was at getting other people's money for her criminal boyfriend. This would only be qualified as bad journalism were it an article, although it may be well written. On this case, however, Ms Malcomb just got it wrong--and in a book which is suppposedly relating a true story this is unacceptable.
Another great work from Janet Malcolm.......2000-10-12
This is the first full-length book by Janet Malcolm that I read, and it lead to my finishing almost all her books.
It is as engaging as, if not more than, other books by Malcolm. It reads like a profile of a defese lawyer who is idealistic to the degree of being obstinate. But at a deeper level, the book argues that the American legal system, which many automatically associate with such ideals as Justice, Fairness and Objectiveness, is more often a battle ground for competing narratives from the defense and prosecution. Malcolm seems to suggest that the winning of a case has less to do with facts than with weaving of those facts into convincing narratives. Being naively idealistic, Sheila McGough was so unsuccessful at being a likable human being (even Malcolm has difficulty liking her) that she tainted the credibility of her own case in the eye of the judge who just didn't find her commonsensical.
But was she guilty because she was a difficult human being/lawyer? This is the troubling question posed by the book. Depending from which angle one approaches the book, it's either a cautionary tale about the importance of being commonsensical or a successful attempt at deconstructing what we call seeking of truth as the goal of American justice system.
literally.......2000-09-13
Janet Malcolm's portrayal of Sheila McGough is of conscientiousness gone awry; the over-zealous lawyer, hired by a con artist names Bob Bailes, guards her client's rights all the way to a prison cell. McGough found herself in the big house after a conviction for fraud: the "crime" she commited related to the disbursment of funds Bailes had deposited into her account. It's probably impossible to relate the complexity of the "crime" and McGough's conviction here, and largely beside the point: Malcolm's interest is in how the letter of the law moves against its spirit, and in those, like McGough, whom she feels to be caught in the middle of this dynamic. McGough, according to Malcolm, suffered from the disease of "literalism," understanding the words and acts but not the intentions and conventions that govern legal proceedings. Her portrait of McGough is sympathetic, though she records her own frustration with her as a subject prone to discursive irrelevancy and excess. Malcolm notes that for the most part McGough's words and action are not precisely irrelevant: just relevant on a scale incommensurate with the gestural and abbreviated, and self-serving practice of law as we know it.
I enjoyed this book, though I found it a puzzle.It's immensly readable, but quite inconsequential in many ways. Malcolm avoids turning this into a case study of McGough's pathological literalism, which it surely could be, and instead presents her story as an allegory of the general disparity between intention and precise meaning. I found McGough, and her family, immensely charming, and found myself, like Malcolm, in sympathy with McGough's doggedness and loyalty, however misplaced.
Book Description
Authors Preface It is impossible for a man to learn, what he thinks he already knows! Most Americans believe that the U.S Government is protecting privacy rights and private property. The sad truth is, through the Act of 1871, and HJR 192, our government has abandoned its' duty to the supreme office holder, the sovereign Citizen. The third Roosevelt administration, took advantage of its' pseudo authority and effectively duped the masses, by fraud, then, enacted the treasonous provisions of the "New Deal"! Yet, few Americans are actually aware of, that grand deception. We the People were dealt a foreign judicial system, which overturned the original "chain of command", and, unlawfully prosecutes all, for "Public Policy" violations. The "Act of 1871" unlawfully claimed THE UNITED STATES as sovereign. In 1933, HJR 192 initiated "Public Policy", instead of Common Law, and, issued U.S. "debt instruments", Federal Reserve Notes, instead of silver certificates. Also, by design, the public education system, of the "U.S." government, deliberately, failed its' duty, to fully educate all Americans, of their lawful birthright, that of "sovereign" rights! Article 1 Section 10 of the Texas Constitution states, quote; and no person shall be held to answer for a criminal offense, unless on an indictment of a grand jury, end quote! By law, no public servant is to act against your liberty, unless he has actually witnessed you, commit a felonious act, or exigent circumstances exit. Or, if there has been a sworn affidavit filed, naming you as the perpetrator of a felony. His sworn duty is expressed in the preamble of Article 1 of the Bill of Rights, quote; That the general, great and essential principles of liberty and free government may be recognized and established, we declare: end quote! Liberty is precious, second only to life itself! That is why "we the People" have authorized "public servants" to guard and protect "our sovereignty". They are authorized to act "only" against actual Common Law crimes. The essential duty of "public servants", was/is to serve and protect, the "liberty", property and sovereign rights of the People. Can "our" free society exist, abide, and flourish, if we do not honor our God given liberty as a precious part of life, not to be infringed upon without a binding cause? Liberty, precious, God given liberty, cannot be infringed upon, simply because "our" representatives, have chosen to allow their agents to misapply commercial codes, above the inherent rights of the sovereign People. In this country, one is considered to be a criminal, if one is cited, not wearing a seat belt. And, if you fail to pay the agency, "claiming criminal behavior", they will arrest you! Even though, there is no victim, no verified complaint, no indictment, no felonious act, and no exigent circumstances existed, to condone your seizure. The public servants within "our" government have sworn an oath, to protect the essential principal of liberty? Our God given, liberty! So, can a victimless crime, lawfully exist? Proverbs 3 - 30 & 31 says; Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm. Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways
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Gaby and the New Money Fraud
Paul Berna
Manufacturer: Bodley Head Children's Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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- Is America up for sale? Thank you Jack, for your stand on our belhaf.
- It's Getting Ugly Out There, But It's About To Get A Lot Uglier
- T. R.
- My favorite curmudgeon
- Great, but hard reading
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It's Getting Ugly Out There: The Frauds, Bunglers, Liars, and Losers Who Are Hurting America
Jack Cafferty
Manufacturer: Wiley
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"Very little of my backstory qualifies as Hallmark Card material, but it may help you to make sense of the way I see and interpret what's going on around me."
-Jack Cafferty
For the millions who watch the "Cafferty File" on CNN's The Situation Room, Jack Cafferty stands for common sense-the much-needed voice of reason who skewers right-wing nut jobs and liberal eggheads alike. For years, he's voiced the views, hopes, and fears of the average American in inimitable style. Now, in It's Getting Ugly Out There, he brings that level-headed wisdom to bear on the most critical issues facing us today-and explains why Americans must take our country back from those who are harming it.
"It's been a target-rich seven years for someone like me who enjoys pushing people's buttons and sticking pins in things that need pricking, from rich and fatuous celebrities offering foreign policy analysis to the latest lying Beltway blowhard impaling himself on his sword of pomposity. . . . Anyone familiar with my daily 'Cafferty File' segments on CNN's The Situation Room knows I'm not exactly what you'd call the mainstream media's poster boy for feel-good news and commentary. In your face is more like it."
"I'm no shrink, but I have the sense Bush has carried an angry chip on his shoulder much of his pampered life, seething just beneath the good-old-boy surface."
"The bottom line is that our government no longer works for us. The government works for the lobbyists who have had a big hand in influencing (if not helping to draft) legislation favoring not the average American citizen but instead big business: health insurance, pharmaceutical and oil companies, and defense contractors, among others. These are the guys who can make the kinds of political contributions that are needed to finance today's multi-million-dollar political campaigns."
"We want our troops home, but we also want a new army of elected officials to march into Washington and take a fresh, uncorrupted look at the needs of the vast majority of Americans. If these two parties, however 2008 breaks, can't fix what's broken, this way of life as we've known it may vanish into some deep, dark crevasse."
Customer Reviews:
Is America up for sale? Thank you Jack, for your stand on our belhaf........2007-10-03
The truth about the direction our society is taking, could not be more brutal for the powerful polititians and the greedy corporate world. They all put this great nation up for sale. Everything goes, in their quest for more power and personal wealth. And painfully, their quest is way above the best interest of this nation and its people. What happened to the legendary American Dream? I can feel Jack's pain while he is trying to make us all wake up to these realities and do something about them. I am asking myself the same questions and What Hapenned To My American Deram? Thank you Jack, for your curagious stand for us all. I put my pain, the pain of an average guy without a voice, in that very question What Happened To My American Dream?: The Quest Of An Immigrant From The Communist Bloc For His American Dream
It's Getting Ugly Out There, But It's About To Get A Lot Uglier.......2007-09-30
Jack Cafferty is, if nothing else, blunt in his assessment of what is wrong with the United States and its leaders. While admitting he originally liked Bush and his original campaign message of being a "Uniter", he now points the finger at the Bush administration and the 109th Congress as being the chief cause of the situations we are in today. He is also less than pleased with the performance of other groups, but those are his main focus.
It could be said that this is a long rant against what he sees wrong with the country, mixed with stories from his life, but that would really be missing the point. He does advocate for a point....that we as citizens have to take back our country from the miscreants who have been selling us out to corporations and lobbyists for years.
It is a good book with an important message, but you won't like it if you are a hard right Bush lover. If , however, you are independent in your views and your voting, you will love it.
T. R........2007-09-30
Jack Cafferty has penned his thoughts in a compelling and well-paced book. He writes as he talks and his thoughts are all spot on target. One only needs to read the chapter on 'eviscerating the middle class' to know that he sees through the spin and twist of this administration with clarity. His use of comments solicited through his "Cafferty Report" on CNN's The Situation Room is judicious and relevant. In fact, Mr. Cafferty was the first person I was aware of who encouraged and used viewer comments to respond to the situations at hand. It is constantly encouraging to see how intelligent and observant so many of his responders are. If only these thinking constituents could affect the changes necessary in Washington DC to build this country up once again. If they don't, it's not because Mr. Cafferty hasn't tried to spur them into action with this book. When will the sequel be released, Mr. Cafferty?
My favorite curmudgeon.......2007-09-28
I have to admit that when I used to watch Jack Cafferty on WNBC some twenty years ago, he wasn't my cup of tea. (rather heavy-spoken and dour, I thought) But he's been back now for a while, on a different network and finally unleashed...just what he's needed to do for a long time and with this new-found freedom comes the wit and the guts to tell it like it is. Jack Cafferty may not be a rocket scientist or an economist (or other things by his own admission) but what he does he does well...being a listening post and a sounding board to a broad spectrum of Americans. Opinionated? Of course! That's what he's there for but I find tuning into listen to him every afternoon a sheer pleasure and one that I look forward to each day.
"It's Getting Ugly Out There" is off by one word only. "It's GOTTEN Ugly Out There" would have been more appropriate but the sentiment is the same. Cafferty goes after George Bush with a vengeance, as well he should, but he minces no words about Congress, Democrats and anyone else whom he thinks is screwing up the country. Although Cafferty can speak harshly he's never vicious in the mode of Bill O'Reilly and part of his appeal is email from viewers which he shares throughout the book. Some of them are very funny and give levity to an otherwise serious book.
I don't agree with everything Jack Cafferty says or writes about but he's got something to say. When you find yourself nodding in agreement with him, that's when your day brightens a little. Cafferty is a treasure and I highly recommend "It's Getting Ugly Out There" for its no-holds-barred approach to the problems facing not only America, but the world. Good going, Jack!!
Great, but hard reading.......2007-09-27
I've had to put this book down a few times, as it just made me more angry with Washington in general. How can we, the intelligent citizens of this country, accept all that goes on in Washington. I agree with Jack - throw them all out and start over in Congress. He's honest, tho a little biased, which isn't difficult to be when looking at the current administration. But he points out the fallacies of Washington in general, and the problems we are all facing as a result of actions taken by both Bush and his republican regime, and the Democrats who cowtow to the private interests.
Books:
- Freak The Mighty (Scholastic Signature)
- Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt
- Good Families Don't
- Green Eggs and Ham (I Can Read It All by Myself Beginner Books)
- Hannibal Rising
- Harry Potter Schoolbooks Box Set: From the Library of Hogwarts: Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, Quidditch Through The Ages
- Haunted Castle on Hallow's Eve (Magic Tree House, 30)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
Books Home
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