Rating: 
Summary: A Great Book
Review: A combonation of facts and humor make this a great book
Rating: 
Summary: Bullbleep
Review: A very disappointing excursion into institutional paranoia. The Kennedy junk is particularly unfortunate. Please, other reviewers, read or reread Posner's meticulously researched, documented, and devastating book on the subject. Belzer can not do better than mutterings and innuendo of the grand conspiratorial type, e.g., Oswald's fingerprints on the murder weapon are explained by some unknown FBI agent for an unknown reason pressing his dead hand against it. (How the FBI agent gets the gun out of evidence storage, how he gets it to the corpse, how he gets it back - all this while the hands are still warm enough to print - how he does all this unobserved, and why he would do it since Hoover was the one with goods on JFK, not vicea-versa, are of course questions not addressed, let alone answered - the usual level of performance for this nonsense.) It's a shame that even a minor public figure has lent his name to this idiocy.
Rating: 
Summary: A good introduction
Review: An easy read. It would be good for someone who is interested in some major conspiracy theories but has never researched before. It lightly touches on JFK, Roswell, Black Copters and MIB. Nothing indepth, but he provides a great biblio. That may be worth the price of the book alone. Otherwise, it has little to offer to those in the know. And some of the jokes seem cheezy and below someone of Belzer's ability.
Rating:
Summary: A Stand-Up's Hysterical Views
Review: As Det. John Munch on NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street, comedian-actor Richard Belzer can often be heard spouting the sardonic cop's paranoid theories about government cover-ups and domestic espionage. Yet who ever thought Belzer himself was such a die-hard conspiracy nut? Or is he just putting us all on? In the first half of his mystifying UFOs, JFK and Elvis (in which the late Mr. Presley, incidentally, gets only a brief mention), Belzer gleefully trashes the 1964 Warren Commission report on JFK's assassination. But Belzer embraces so many alternate explanations that we're left to conclude that a veritable army of assassins from CIA agents to Mafia hit men murdered the President. When he moves on to UFOs, Belzer's approach is slightly more antic. ("The universe is really big," he says, making the case for extraterrestrials. "It's even bigger than Wal-Mart.") Was the 1969 lunar landing merely a huge special-effects hoax? Or did Neil Armstrong spot UFOs on the moon, which NASA then covered up? In sum, Belzer's amusing cockeyed thesis seems to be: Have it your way--just don't believe anything the government tells you. A tongue-in-cheeky read.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good All Around
Review: Belz did a great job on this book. He's certainly come a long way from his last one (How to Be A Standup Comedian). I agree, he did do his homework on this book. I've been a long time admirer of JFK, and I learned more about the conspiracy surrounding his death. Although the part of the book dealing w/ JFK was rather one sided, it was well written and very persuasive. I'd always thought that the government had something to to w/ JFK's death, but I never really had any info to back it up when asked. After I had read Ufo's, JFK, and Elvis, I could answer pretty much any question my friends asked me. I know that not everyone wants to read this book so they can be the resident JFK expert, that just happens to be my reason. It's good for whatever reason you're reading it for. I've loved pretty much everything Belz has done so far (We'll leave Groove Tube out of that group...) and I was pretty disappointed w/ his first book. I took a chance on this one, but it turned out to be a winner.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good All Around
Review: Belz did a great job on this book. He's certainly come a long way from his last one (How to Be A Standup Comedian). I agree, he did do his homework on this book. I've been a long time admirer of JFK, and I learned more about the conspiracy surrounding his death. Although the part of the book dealing w/ JFK was rather one sided, it was well written and very persuasive. I'd always thought that the government had something to to w/ JFK's death, but I never really had any info to back it up when asked. After I had read Ufo's, JFK, and Elvis, I could answer pretty much any question my friends asked me. I know that not everyone wants to read this book so they can be the resident JFK expert, that just happens to be my reason. It's good for whatever reason you're reading it for. I've loved pretty much everything Belz has done so far (We'll leave Groove Tube out of that group...) and I was pretty disappointed w/ his first book. I took a chance on this one, but it turned out to be a winner.
Rating:
Summary: Comedic and Intelligent Are Not Mutually Exclusive
Review: Belzer is an intelligent person who is also a comedian, as well as an actor. Why some people think that being well read, cultured, and intelligent, as well as a comedian/actor are mutually exclusive, is beyond me. (Why do you think Belzer has escaped the cultural wasteland of the USA and moved to France?) Belzer's comedy routines have always been pointed, political, and sardonic. The blending of wit, intelligence and comedy in Conspiracies should not come as a surprise to anyone, especially those familiar with Belzer's comedy. Belzer has obviously followed conspiracy theories, politics and the topics of UFOs, JFK, etc. for years. His personal thoughts on these subjects are hysterically and thoughtfully put together in this book. This book isn't a scientific look at UFOs. It isn't a sociological breakdown of our cultures' fascination with the JFK assassination. The book does not contain "in-depth" interviews, photographs, charts and graphs, surveys or other scientific data. Belzer isn't a scientist, sociologist or psychologist, he is a writer/comedian/actor, and, as such, has put together his personal thoughts regarding these subjects in a book. To expect Belzer to provide some sort of rigid documentation, or in-depth interviews with those "in the know, " is missing the point. Belzer is entitled to his opinion, whether one agrees with him or not. He also is writing in his own style, which is comedic. Don't let the comedic style fool you; beneath Belzer's wit lies perceptions based on intelligent thinking and research through the years on these very topics. Belzer stays true to who he is: a man with a sense of the absurd, a comedic perspective of the world. It has often been the "comics" who have had the most serious things to say. (Mort Sahl, George Carlin, Dennis Miller, etc.) As someone who has been studying UFO and UFO-related phenomena, I found Belzer's insights to be both entertaining and on the mark. Far from finding Belzer's blend of humor and thinking on the topics contradictory or confusing, I found his style to be refreshing and informative. I also admire Belzer for "coming out" publicly with his views on these subjects, particularly the topic of UFOs. Mainstream society still does not treat the sincere exploration of UFOs as valid. Mainstream media and society still consider those of us who explore such topics as nut-cases. Belzer is brave to put himself out there with his insights.
Rating: 
Summary: Belzer needs to write sci-fi!
Review: Belzer reads his findings and theories on these defining events of the 20th Century. Though comic in his sardonic tone and satiric asides, there is nothing funny about the content. Richard lets us in on his obsession with dark brooding over the cover-up and continuing conspiracy to hide the truth of JFK's assassination. More to my interest is his delving into the government's UFO denials. Belzer has a knack for making these seeming coincidences and possible explanations totally unbelievable. He also quotes and refers to other information gatherers as his sources. I just may have to seek out more of this stuff.
Rating:
Summary: In the hippie vernacular, all I can say is, "WOW!"
Review: Can a mere mortal be a hilarious stand-up comedian, a marvelous actor in drama, AND a magnificent writer? In Richard Belzer's case, the answer is yes...AND he is married to a beautiful wife...AND he lives in France. Can a book be, at the very same time, a serious discourse on conspiracies AND be hysterically funny? This book of Richard Belzer's can. What a talent! I hope you don't think I'm being facetious. Believe me, I'm not. At the same time Belzer got me really thinking about his conspiracy thinking (and I am a conspiracy theory novice, so this is all new to me), he also had me literally laughing out loud. I call this remarkable. 99.9% of the books I purchase, I buy at Amazon. But I found this one in the "HUMOR" section of our local independent bookseller. I'd been reading such heavy-duty literature and non-fiction for so long, I thought I could use some humor...and I was NOT disappointed in that regard in Belzer's book. But what blew me away (I seem to be, in this review, totally talking in the hippie vernacular, so please, bear with me) is that along with laughing out loud, I found myself immersed in a beautifully and accessibly written treatise on conspiracies. I learned so much! I went running, upon being done to the book, to my computer to look things he'd recommended up. What a book! WHAT A CONCEPT! This guy is brilliant! I recommend it for humor, I recommend it for an introduction to conspiracy theory, and I recommend it for some truly excellent writing. Get this book, please! You'll thank me for it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, thought provoking, and well written.
Review: Can't say when I've enjoyed a book more or thought more when I read it. This book is excellent in every way and Mr. Belzer has really done his homework for it. Belzer has said he is a long time fan of writer Brad Steiger (Project Blue Book & Alien Rapture) and I can see the influence in his book. In fact, Alien Rapture is the best novel I've read in many years. I highly recommend 'Conspiracies You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Believe.' It's as thought provoking as Belzer is funny.
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