Rating: 
Summary: Where does all this hate come from?
Review: Mona now that the Republican controlled Senate has voted down Faith Based support, does this make them Traitors too?How is it that people who disagree with you are traitors? I think I have finally figured out what makes these neo-cons so angry... They know the liberals are better educated, better informed, more intelligent and disagree with their conclusions...Because in the world of Mona Simple...anyone who knows the facts will just have to come to her opinion... I do remember Mona saying women are ill informed...last I looked Mona was a woman...I guess by her own standard she is ill informed... Wait and buy this for 2 bucks on the Bargin Books cut out section in about 6 months...unless you benefited from that tax cut for people who make more than a million a year...then pay full retail...show me how smart you...
Rating: 
Summary: Freudian slip?
Review: Reviewing Charen's book, the anonymous reader from Nebraska writes: "Believes that anyone who does not hold her beliefs must be a liebral." Liebral, liberal. It's all about semantics.
Rating:
Summary: who are the real ...?
Review: While this book lacks the usual invective (except for the title) of other hate-filled, right wing books polluting bookshelves, it is still filled with the usual lies, misrepresentations, and hypocrisy so typical of conservative authors these days. Like most other righties writing books as of late, she falls into the credibilty robbing trap of lumping all liberals in the same category: all liberals this and all liberals that-blah, blah, blah. It's really getting old. When one examines the extreme wing of any political ideology, there are invariably some unattractive elements. This is true for both the right and the left. But should this be an idictment of anyone who falls on either side of the center? And what form of extremism is really the most dangerous in recent times? Need I remind the dittoheads that the most murderous act of domestic terrorism was from an extreme right wing group. I don't hear liberals lumping ALL Republicans and conservatives with militia groups, the KKK, or Aryan Nation. Yet this is what many conservatives will do: If you are a liberal, you're a communist. It's garbage. You cannot take a statement that a person makes (especially out of context) and make these broad generalizations. Disagreeing with your government does not make you a traitor. A sure sign of intelligence is the ability to see both sides of an issue and to not engage in these simplistic dichotomies. I hate to tell conservatives this, but many, many liberals hate communism, do not blame America for 9/11, and are just as patriotic as they are. The hatred and lies that pours out of these new right wing books is frightening. What is more frightening is the reaction of the people who read them. The goal of the authors is to paint all liberals as evil, just like the Nazis did to the Jews before the Holocaust. While they have the right of free speech (something these freedom loving conservatives would love to deprive liberals of), we must recognize that it is THIER speech that is decidedly un-American. Writing a hate-filled book ridden with lies and misrepresentations that demonizes liberals is akin to winning the lottery these days. They are woefully short on substance, but the conservative drones rush to buy them as the authors laugh all the way to the bank. Wake up, America. The more power the extreme right gains, the closer we will get to losing everything that makes this the greatest nation on earth.
Rating:
Summary: A must-have for every bunker across the country
Review: This is another peice of talk radio-style garbage. If you're a fan of the Rush-clone genre, this is your cup of tea. It's basically 300 pages of paranoia an demonization of any public figure who might exhibit the audacity to work with integrity for a political perspective different from the far-right reaction the writer apparently holds dear. The title sets the tone for the rest of the book. Malicious and beligerant, brattish, irresponsible and unproductive... you name it, it's got it. Revels in jingoism, chauvinism, homopobia, classism, racism, and plain uglliness. Again, the title sets the tone for everything that follows...
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting . . .
Review: Thank you Ms. Charen for putting in print what I have just now begun to understand about the left. They are, quite simply, hypocrits. One day, they disavow the "Cold War" as simply a figment of US paranoia and a lie perpetuated by the US to justify its frenetic arms build-up. The very next day (or next decade), once there is no USSR, these same people claim victory over the "evil" Soviet empire. Talk about rewriting history. These are the same people who treat Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro as "mad geniuses" yet they have the audacity to SCREAM about poverty and civil rights in the US. Huh? One of the more disturbing stories in the book (disturbing only because of its timeliness) is John Kerry's amazing "flip flop." Here's a guy I thought actually had a brain and a heart. Now, I'm not so sure. John Kerry was a decorated Vietnam Vet who came back from that war and joined the anti-war movement. He even threw his medals away in a defiant gesture against the war. That's all well and good -- I have no problem with someone who learns from a personal experience and changes his mind. What I find objectionable, and what Ms. Charon takes great pains to point out, is that no sooner had the anti-war movement in this country subsided than Mr. Kerry was now, suddenly, a great war hero exuding pride about his military and (alas!) with all his medals intact. So, he's anti-war when the country is predominantly anti-war, but he's "pro-miliary" when patriotism is in vogue? Pretty disgusting. Like another enlightened reviewer, I am awaiting the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Polemics at its worst...
Review: This book is garbage. Please leave this type of skewering to someone who does it with insight. Mona Charen is second-rate, at best. In a time when the "right" people are behind the media, Mona's still a hack that no one listens to. Leave this type of work to the big boys, Mona.
Rating:
Summary: Useful information
Review: A nice companion piece to Richard Pipes' 'Communism: A history,' Mona Charen provides an extensive catalog of quotes, facts, and events to illustrate the manner in which people have been duped by communist rhetoric. The trials and tribulations of Russia, Cuba, Cambodia, and Vietnam get a second review, this time under a critical light. There are plenty of people who must now be saying to themselves: 'I hope no one remembers what I said about ______.' Reading the discredited quotations leaves the reader sadder but wiser. Using her thoughtful work, here is a list of ways to become a useless idiot: 1. Blame America first.
2. Extol enforced, pervasive, subsistence equality.
3. Enjoy freedom but don't understand it.
4. Forget quickly just how wrong critics were about nuclear freezes, the benefits of communism, and the inevitability of Marxism.
5. Believe communist rhetoric, ignore communist reality.
6. Discount governments that murder its dissidents, throttle its people, and drive millions into exile.
7. Deny the value of private property and wealth, usually while having plenty of your own.
8. Make predictions or analyses as to the economic power and success of communist countries.
9. Holding America and capitalism to be standards of perfection while glossing over wholesale problems in communist countries.
10. When in doubt, hate America. Sure, America has its problems. One of its beauties is the country's ability to accept and absorb critics and self-criticism. Bu those who see communism or socialism, here or abroad, as a better way, are just missing the picture. With all America's faults, it's the place where people seek refuge and a better life, and where both can be found.
Rating:
Summary: Shame!
Review: I used to read Charen's column years ago as a harmless diversion. And over the years, I've come to find her to be another hate-filled person who spews her venom on anything and anyone that she doesn't agree with. This is the sort of thinking that leads to bigotry, Inquisitions, and the auto-da-fe!! I'm sorry, but the expression of a difference with the powers-that-be does not make one a traitor to one's country (unless you wish to include Jefferson, Washington, Adams, etc in the list), but rather oftentimes shows the highrest regards for the principles upon which this blessed country was founded. At last, how sad it is that there are people who are so limited as to think that this sort of baiting and name-calling is an acceptable mode of expression in the 21st century. As an American and as a human being, this woman should be ashamed of herself!!
Rating:
Summary: Useful Idiots
Review: After reading Mona`s articles in my newspaper.This book only reinforces that Mona should be locked up in a rubber room with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.I wouldn`t recommend this totally worthless piece of garbage to anybody.Put it right along side the book Bias.
Rating: 
Summary: a stale meal
Review: That someone as useless as Mona Charen would rail against Jimmy Carter for begin a supposed "idiot" is the sort of blasphemy I was not expecting in this latest on my reading list of sensational diatribes against "liberals." I'm really trying hard to figure out how it is that a war on drugs and the push for faith-based organizations and initiatives fit in with the idea of less government. Hypocrisy is the worst characteristic of the "Right." In response to all those who write in complaining that we liberals never comment on the content in these books, I have an answer: we look for content and substance that we are used to and we come up dry! The "Left" is often better read than the "Right" and we often become aghast to discover works like this - that offer so little - skyrocketing up the sales charts. We falsely assume that there must be something to it. Reading O'Reilley and others is like pluggin' your adult brain into Barney for grown-ups. You have some laughs, get some giggles and go away hungry for quality programming! If just one of these books can ultimately prove more enlightening or amusing than one off-night episode of The Simpsons, I'll gladly wax poetic on the wonderful substance and content of the work. Until then I'll stick with matching the artificialty of the work I am reviewing. It never ceases to fail. Books like "Useful Idiots" are the equivalent of two-day old barbecue in the refrigerator. It just tastes bad.
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