Rating: 
Summary: Less Funny Than I Expected
Review: I wanted to read this book for a while, because I sort of know the author, a friend of a friend. I expected it to be humorous and it is in places, but no, Harry has some serious beefs with the liberal establishment, as do I. It was a revealing book, maybe even a bit TOO revealing. I get a little squeamish when people talk so openly about their families as if all the world is supposed to know them kind of thing. But I guess some people are just this way. The part where it was revealing and in an important way was where Harry described his political background, how the idealism soured. This was important stuff. I used to be a liberal too, then I grew up, got some consciousness, discovered economic reality and other realities. This is a good book for getting people who think of themselves as liberal to take a good look at themselves and perhaps rethink their positions. Hope your next book is a little funnier Harry.
Rating:
Summary: Political Thought Draped Behind Humor
Review: This is a good book to read if you're Conservative. It has some nice anecdotes, some humor, but nothing earth shattering in the way of politcal thought. I can only hope that every liberal will evolve into a Conservative.
Rating: 
Summary: Consider the Source
Review: Harry Stein has seen the light, and bully for him. In his book "How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (and Found Inner Peace) the author and journalist chronicles his quintessential boomeresque journey from affluent red-diaper baby to responsible guardian of values, decency, and above all, family. His is a cautionary tale of disillusionment, realization, and self-actualization as only a prominent member of the ultimate "me" generation could relate. Troubled by the early sordid revelations of the Clinton campaign in 1992, Stein methodically unravelled years of liberal conditioning in his own mind, questioning orthodoxies and voicing heresies which earned him the contempt of unreconstructed leftists everywhere. For those readers looking for support for their own political conversions, this is a valuable book. Stein gets it right, in more ways than one, on many of the issues, tackling the mindless hysteria of extreme radical feminism, the pernicious effects of the entitlement culture, the suffocating despotism of political correctness, and the general decline of moral decency in American life. It's often the right message, but it's the wrong messenger. Stein's arrogance permeates all of his political analysis, as he adopts one form of self-aggrandizing righteousness for another. The story of his metamorphosis begins, where else, with paeans to the transformative power of fatherhood. It provides the basis of his renunciation of feminism, his indictment of the media, and his fierce enmity towards the liberal intelligentsia, whose putative "good intentions" he learns to despise and then to suspect at their core. His shameless diatribe about the pro-choice movement, which he equates with the moral rot at the center of leftism everywhere, gets thrown into stark relief when he admits that he himself was responsible for three abortions, one in his callow youth, and the others, somewhat shockingly, with his wife, with whom he now shares two children. He sheepishly admits to his hypocrisy, then blithely skips on to his favorite subject, the joys of parenthood. His narcissism knows no bounds. He ends the book on a sour note, detailing the marital woes of an acquaintance who'd abrogated his family responsibilites and had an affair, all under the approving guidance of a therapist. He then goes on to admit to using therapy himself, revealing what we didn't want to know about his own volatile marriage, and patting himself on the back for staying in the relationship for the sake of the children. "My wife can be very hateful sometimes," he states with assurance. One wonders what his wife might say of him. These impromptu confessions spoil an otherwise cogent and timely indictment of a culture mired down in self-indulgence and lacking a spiritual core. Harry Stein thinks he's escaped the clutches of this many-armed monster. He might want to go back into therapy.
Rating:
Summary: Must Reading for Liberals
Review: Stein has an especially interesting section on the re-blackballing of Mr. Kazan, due to his "naming names" during the anti-communist era (before we sold missile tech to commies). He goes a step further than, say, William F. Buckley (who has chronicled the accuracy of so many of the charges, by pulling quotes from the people on the blacklists, who later admitted they were communists after the fact). Here, Stein locates source material used by the communists themselves, to document that the communist controllers to whom the Hollywood sympathizers reported, had their own list of books the Hollywood commies were not allowed to read (e.g., Darkness at Noon), and that they gave orders of what the Hollywood screenwriters should write. Funny how this kind of mind-control and censorship is essentially applauded yet today by mainstream Hollywood, when they tacitly support this, by ostracizing people who tried to uncover it by "naming names." This insight alone is worth picking up this book.
Rating:
Summary: Satisfying, if not moving.
Review: Harry Stein's book should prove interesting to conservatives of all sorts, and maybe even some inquiring liberals. The book, which details Stein's trek into the conservative movement (duh!), provides a fresh perspective to conservatives accustomed to either arguing or agreeing with stalwarts rather than discussing with open minds. This book is simply satisfying, but one will not need to crack the book again anytime soon, so I recommend buying the book as much as I recommend checking it out from the library. Just read it if it piques your interest.
Rating: 
Summary: Bright, amusing and disturbing: Morals Lost
Review: I have read Stein's book twice and recommend it to all. Stein's willingness to scrutinize the hypocrisy of our liberal selves is brutally honest as well as uplifting. Our society has lost it's moral compass but TO JUDGE, as Stein points out a number of times, is now 'politically incorrect.' He is courageous in his willingness to discuss such decidedly controversial issues as: use of day care for our children; behavior patterns that factor into contracting AIDS; and sexual infidelity to spouses actually not being acceptable no matter what. While reading, I found myself feeling more grounded and hopeful. Stein reminds us, without being sanctimonious, that there are certain moral imperatives that have, through the ages, enabled societies to function effectively. Stein happens to also be a superb and clever writer so his themes, though approached with a serious intent, are handled in a very amusing and entertaining style. (His cover says it all.) Stein is totally honest about his transformation and his previous lifestyle being rather lax and thoughtless. But this is a man who has changed, not in small part due to the influence of his bright wife, Priscilla, who reads/views all with a critical and fresh viewpoint. A terrific book for any Book Club as it provides many gold nuggets for discussion/debate. Also recommended for any of you who feel you're alone out there with your concerns (unspeakable as they might be) that just maybe, though you're not a fan of the 'moral majority', our society has lost it's moral compass. Stein provides a perspectives that give us a ethical rock to hold onto. Stimulating, challenging and fun. Enjoy!
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Summary: This Book is a Riot.
Review: I found this book very funny. Especially that bit about Dead Man Walking. I have always enjoyed Harry Stein's column in TV Guide. However, I decided not to renew my subscription when he was no longer in their employ and they started getting too radical for me. His was the only voice of decency and common sense--and humor--in that rag. I agree with Harry that "The Left" (aka Liberalism) has been taken over by people who want freedom without responsibility, who have no conscience or morals (Clinton being the ultimate example of it), who brook no alternative views (otherwise known as intolerance)--and get away with all of it, thanks to a complicit media. Whereupon 20 years ago being Liberal meant a philosophy of freedom, opportunity and Liberty (religious and otherwise) for all. Yesterday's Liberals are really Libertarians today. What happened? Harry explains it all. Thank you, Harry, for writing this book. The Truth needs to come out.
Rating: 
Summary: Standard Christian Right-Wing Claptrap
Review: Under the guise of "compassionate conservatism", Harry Stein has written a truly loathsome and despicable book, a thinly-veiled attack on blacks, women and gays. Short on logic and long on hysteria, Mr. Stein's book represents the deterioration of a once-probing intellect.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome to the VRWC
Review: Harry Stein, whose terrific baseball novel Hoopla I've long been a fan of, has written a very funny half polemic/half memoir about his own journey from Red-diaper baby to surprise member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. Stein wrote the Ethics column at Esquire for many years and, inevitably for someone addressing ethical concerns, had periodically stumbled into conservative positions, but as late as 1992 he volunteered for the Clinton campaign. The real turning point in his life came when his wife had their first child and announced, to his initial shock, that she would be staying home from now on to raise the baby. Nothing in the book is more revealing than the reaction of friends and colleagues to her decision. They were almost uniformly flabbergasted at, some were even hostile to, the idea that she might give up her career to be a full time mother. As is so often the case, when forced to examine political questions through the prism of parenthood, Stein too found his own views becoming increasingly conservative: ...something odd began to happen--mainly to the country, and incidentally to people like me. As feminism and multiculturalism more and more sought to remake society, attacking much that had served humanity well as narrow or even antique, we concluded we could no longer in good conscience remain on that side. There was both too little respect for the accumulated wisdom of the ages and too much playing havoc with truth and common sense. Indeed, many of us were soon startled to find ourselves tagged conservatives (and often worse) for holding firm to the old-fashioned liberalism: a bedrock commitment to fairness and individual liberty. These nascent flickers of rightward leanings were soon fanned into a genuine conservative flame by both the spectacle of the Clinton Administration and, even more so, by the frequently vicious reaction that his rather mild apostasy provoked at the workplace, in his social circle, and from readers. He was brought face to face with one of the ugliest aspects of modern liberalism, the intolerance for dissenting opinion and the willingness to demonize anyone who strays from liberal orthodoxy. By the time of the impeachment scandal, Stein realized that he was no longer a liberal Democrat he had become a Republican, albeit a pretty moderate one. Alongside the account of his political trek, Stein launches into short polemical riffs on issues like abortion, affirmative action, religious freedom, gay rights and so on. To anyone who follows Republican politics and the Conservative Movement, most of this will be familiar, perhaps too familiar, but Stein does bring the zeal of a convert and it's always fun to watch the scales fall from someone's eyes. The best stuff in these sections is his personal experience with political correctness, which adds immediacy to his tale, and a seminal theory on why the French love Jerry Lewis. My one quibble with the book is the same as I had for William Henry's fairly similar In Defense of Elitism. Lingering pangs of liberal guilt lead Stein to attack certain easy targets on the Right, even though it's not terribly clear how he differs with them, and given his own evolving views it's really hard to see how the attacks make much sense. For example, though he remains relatively pro choice, he does say that he believes that the fetus is a living being. In the next breath though he attacks pro-life absolutists as unreasonable. My own views on abortion are not dissimilar to Stein's, but having conceded that abortion takes a life, I don't see how I can then turn around and say that those who oppose all abortions are being extremists. Their views are actually consistent, it is mine which are morally flaccid. I'm the one who supports taking a position for reasons of social expedience; who then am I to pretend to be morally superior to those who simply extend my own views to their logical ends? Of course it's still early days for Stein and as he gets acclimated over here on the Right one assumes he'll lose the psychological need to curry favor with former fellow travelers by dissing his new comrades. At any rate, it's an immensely enjoyable book, one that I recommend heartily. Welcome to the Dark Side, Mr. Stein. GRADE: A-
Rating:
Summary: Conservativism - Religion = Empty Pragmatism?
Review: Stein's style is delightful, and his reflections on the journey to a conscientious moral lifestyle are a joy to read. But throughout the last few chapters, I began to realize that he'd only briefly touched on the subject of his own religion -- and that was to say that he wasn't practicing it. Is it enough to have morality without religion? Other "conservative" writers like Dennis Prager and Laura Schlessinger have said it is not, and I'm afraid that I have to agree. Without religion, conservative morality is still perhaps better than liberalism, but it's essentially an empty thing which neither sets an example for others nor propagates to the next generation. I felt sadder, after that realization, as I read on and observed that Stein's morality is propped up often by little more than his and his wife's personal preferences. He is opposed to abortion, but why? Without God, without absolute standards of morality for the entire human race, it comes down to moral relativism, however tough Stein may sound on the outside. As Prager and Joseph Telushkin wrote in the chapter on God's existence in their book "The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism": "Without God, all we can have are opinions about morality, but our opinions about "good" and "evil" behavior are no more valid or binding than our opinions about "good" and "bad" ice cream. " All Stein has, in the end, are opinions about morality, which is too bad. He's just as Jewish as Prager, Telushkin and even Schlessinger are, but he's chosen to throw that part of himself away. Instead, he gives us this book which tries to prove that his opinion is the pragmatic one, the sensible one, the logical one. Morality, though, is more than mere logic. If foetuses have no soul -- no essential connection to God -- abortion might well be a *logical* thing to do. And last I checked, nobody had elected Harry Stein the supreme arbiter of Good and Evil. I'd rather read opinions that appeal to a higher power than those of a man who seems to answer to no-one beyond himself.
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