Rating: 
Summary: Next Up From Mr. Fodeman
Review: I'm sure Jason Fodeman has more than one book up his sleeve. I've heard that coming up next are two great books. The first will deal with the epidemic of breaking and entering that followed the Watergate break-in. The second will deal with the rise of selling arms to terrorists following the Iran-Contra scandal. There may even be a third, which will be all about how children operating lemonade stands began ripping off their customers and investors after the Enron scandal. Oh, and here's an idea for a fourth, a novel about a child inspired by George W. Bush to attack a bully on the playground. When asked why he did it, he replies, "I had good evidence that Timmy had rocks in his pocket and could attack me within 45 minutes. Now let's just forget about this. I liberated the other children from his tyranny." The child is suspended from school and made to go to bed without milk and cookies. Fodeman has a point about the influence of public leaders, but it's a bit naive to narrow it down to a single president. Presidents before Clinton were punished for their actions, Fodeman says. Funny, I'd forgotten about Nixon's term in prison. What's more, so much of the evidence he presents has been either disproven (the alleged "looting" of the White House by Clinton and his staff) or is merely interesting speculation (the Vince Foster affair). Lack of evidence does not equal evidence. I hate to break that to Mr. Fodeman. His case would fall apart in a court of law. A nice rant, but hardly new. It's the same old song with a different singer.
Rating: 
Summary: A MUST READ
Review: It is a must read for all ages. Even the literary editor of the June 30, 2003 edition of the National Review writes: "How to Destroy a Village: What the Clintons Taught a Seventeen Year Old is one of the most remarkable documents to emerge from the Clinton era."
Rating: 
Summary: Another Neo-Conservative Hatchet Job On The Clintons!
Review: It seems as though the publishing world has an endless appetite for scurrilous books meant to defame and discredit the many accomplishments of the Clinton presidency by once again concentrating on the most salacious and unfortunate aspects of his eight-year presidency. This time the neo-conservative trot out a youthful aspirant for the young Republican's club, and have him spill his remarkably jaded and propaganda-laden spleen all over the sidewalk complaining as to how his morals were corrupted and his poor fragile psyche was damaged by the bad example of the President. Give us all a break. Anyone who buys into the idea adolescents are so fragile or so easily influenced should spend some time around them. The teens I so recently taught are quite intellectually and emotionally robust, very worldly, and characteristically hardy, and are nowhere near so easily influenced as our young author would contend. So if he is being straight with us here, it sounds more like a personal situation that anything characteristic of intelligent teens en masse. While I would never try to defend the unfortunate moral lapses of Mr. Clinton, this book reads like a primer for inoculating young voters (and their older siblings as well) against what the far right considers to be the dangers of an insurgent Hilary Clinton candidacy. To the cynical eye of this long-time political observer, this tome looks suspiciously like the handiwork of a politically motivated and personally ambitious teenager being influenced and encouraged by the same radical fringe of the neo-conservative wing of the GOP, now bent on destroying Hilary's appeal in the very womb of its inception. I would recommend the book if it were a sincere and more objective look at the ways in which politics in general tends to turn off adolescents and convince them of the dubious morality of the political process. As such it would make for a good read. But what we have here is a calculated, demeaning and patently political attack on one particular politician and his emerging politician wife, as if his (and by association her) particular misdeeds were so flagrant and so upsetting that it would upset, dismay, and horrify youthful dispositions. The far right must fear the power of a Hilary Clinton candidacy, and given the success of her book on the best-seller list, perhaps rightly so. And while I am not one of her admirers, I do not like efforts such as this that try to tar and feather her without the benefit of a trial. Give us all a break. This book is not worth the paper it is published on. By the way, the only reason I gave this a one star rating is that Amazon does not allow negative ratings.
Rating: 
Summary: Clinton Apologizers Miss the Point...Again.
Review: It seems the only bad reviews for this book are coming from disgruntled liberals who probably didn't read it in the first place. Once again the Clinton apologizers miss the point. Before I get to the point of the book I must set the record straight for these revisionist liberals. Lying about sex isn't a criminal act unless you are lying about it under oath. What's even worse is that Clinton lied under oath when he was on trial for sexually harrassing another woman. It amazes me how liberals can't understand this fact. Onto the book. Sure teen sex, lying, and cheating existed before President Clinton, but he certainly didn't help the situation. Clinton committed adultry, perjured himself, and lied to the American people, and he got away with everything. How does this look to kids and teenagers? I'll tell you how it looks. It looks like you can cheat on your wife and lie in court and you not only won't get in trouble, but you will be rewarded with the adoration of millions of people -- read lemmings -- and mult-million dollar book deals. I can't believe that teacher wrote a review of this book and said teenagers aren't influenced by Clinton's acts. Give me a break. It may be hard to influence kids to do good, but it is certainly easy to influence them to do bad, especially if the President is doing the same things. Even if Clinton's crimes did not cause more teen sex, lying and cheating, it certainly gave teenagers a good excuse to justify their misdeeds. By the Indie Pundit
Rating:
Summary: A NEW AND FRESH VOICE OF TRUTH IN AMERICA. TALENTED AUTHOR
Review: Jason Fodeman demonstrated a mature talent in putting the ever deteriorating state of American values in the right perspective. Young age does not prevent Fodeman from demonstrating a keen understanding of complex issues that many authors do not know how, or are afraid, to address. America should applaud to an opportunity to hear a voice of the young generation. The modern liberals who deceive themselves as if they are true representative of the progressive force in the society are deceiving themselves misinterpreting their opposites. A modern conservative means not adherence to reactionary ideas, but to values that made the incredible phenomena of American democracy possible. It is nice to see that even a young generation understand this.I strongly recommend this book for all those who care for their childen and for those who want to see difficult, but, parodoxically, actually, simple matters, in the right scale of values.
Rating:
Summary: A NEW AND FRESH VOICE OF TRUTH IN AMERICA. TALENTED AUTHOR
Review: Jason Fodeman demonstrated a mature talent in putting the ever deteriorating state of American values in the right perspective. Young age does not prevent Fodeman from demonstrating a keen understanding of complex issues that many authors do not know how, or are afraid, to address. America should applaud to an opportunity to hear a voice of the young generation. The modern liberals who deceive themselves as if they are true representative of the progressive force in the society are deceiving themselves misinterpreting their opposites. A modern conservative means not adherence to reactionary ideas, but to values that made the incredible phenomena of American democracy possible. It is nice to see that even a young generation understand this.I strongly recommend this book for all those who care for their childen and for those who want to see difficult, but, parodoxically, actually, simple matters, in the right scale of values.
Rating:
Summary: Youthful Author's wisdom exposes Bill and Hillary's scam
Review: Jason Fodeman demonstrates an unusually keen insight for a 17 year-old in his excellent expose of the Clinton Presidency. With literary precision he details facts surrounding the numerous scandals which characterized the Clintons during the President's two terms. Mr. Fodeman's contrast between the values imparted to him by his parents and grandparents which influence so much of who he is, with the Clinton's values for power, money, exploitation, greed, and lying, is striking. Page after page startles the reader into an awareness of how vulnerable young people could have been influenced so negatively by such powerful and influential people as the Clintons. Mr. Fodeman's style of writing and youhtful insights make this an appealing book for people of all ages who seek to understand the Clinton's influence on our culture.
Rating:
Summary: l=0l)'/ 15 64'/
Review: Jason Fodeman is the best author ever, but ]=[3 l_1l<35 17 1l\l 7]=[3 455. ]=[3 473 0l_l7 70l)l) 3lvll2'5 4l\ll_l5.
Rating:
Summary: A penny nail in the coffin
Review: More perhaps than with most books, it's difficult to separate the merits of "How to Destroy a Village" from the biography of its author. On its own, it's just one more recitation of the crimes of "the most ethical Administration in history" and the lasting stain it left on this country. Unreconstructed Clintonistas have all kinds of derogatory terms for such recitation, but there is unquestionable value in it ... especially in an election year. But over and above its straightforward contents, what really makes this title interesting is the author, Jason Fodeman. It's rare, in my experience, to find a teenager so articulate (especially over the course of a sustained argument) or one who can research and marshal his facts so well. The book does in fact read like it was written by a seventeen year old, but under the circumstances this is authentic, not distracting. Fodeman is clearly still finding his voice and experimenting with language and expression. How many of us were so far along at his age? That's why, if Amazon.com offered this feature, I'd give the book three stars, but the author four or even four-point-five. Where I think Fodeman could have done a better job is in expanding his analysis beyond his own life and mindset to include a portrayal of his peers. His general method is to digest the facts of a particular Clinton scandal, and then to reflect on how the Clintons' immoral or unethical behavior differs from the principles his parents taught him. Though his arguments from logic are valuable, I also would have liked to see more concrete evidence of how (or whether) other kids were affected by the Clintons' negative moral or ethical examples. Also, I wish his editor had done something to improve Fodeman's high-school-English-class typography. For anyone not using a manual typewriter, book and magazine titles are italicized, not underlined. And the "scientific" practice of citing sources in parenthesis at the end of every sentence is unnecessarily distracting -- especially when the same source is cited six times in succession, as on pages 173-175. God has blessed us with footnotes, and we should make use of them. On the whole, this is an interesting addition to the five-foot shelf of books decrying what blogger Billy Beck has called "the Clinton Long March." Not the most ground-breaking, nor the one that will arouse the most passionate response from Slick's knee-jerk defenders, but certainly a perspective worth noting. As the reviews on this page show, reactions from both sides of the aisle are pretty much what you'd expect. Mostly, I'm looking forward to seeing whether Mr. Fodeman has anything else to write in the future.
Rating:
Summary: A penny nail in the coffin
Review: More perhaps than with most books, it's difficult to separate the merits of "How to Destroy a Village" from the biography of its author. On its own, it's just one more recitation of the crimes of "the most ethical Administration in history" and the lasting stain it left on this country. Unreconstructed Clintonistas have all kinds of derogatory terms for such recitation, but there is unquestionable value in it ... especially in an election year. But over and above its straightforward contents, what really makes this title interesting is the author, Jason Fodeman. It's rare, in my experience, to find a teenager so articulate (especially over the course of a sustained argument) or one who can research and marshal his facts so well. The book does in fact read like it was written by a seventeen year old, but under the circumstances this is authentic, not distracting. Fodeman is clearly still finding his voice and experimenting with language and expression. How many of us were so far along at his age? That's why, if Amazon.com offered this feature, I'd give the book three stars, but the author four or even four-point-five. Where I think Fodeman could have done a better job is in expanding his analysis beyond his own life and mindset to include a portrayal of his peers. His general method is to digest the facts of a particular Clinton scandal, and then to reflect on how the Clintons' immoral or unethical behavior differs from the principles his parents taught him. Though his arguments from logic are valuable, I also would have liked to see more concrete evidence of how (or whether) other kids were affected by the Clintons' negative moral or ethical examples. Also, I wish his editor had done something to improve Fodeman's high-school-English-class typography. For anyone not using a manual typewriter, book and magazine titles are italicized, not underlined. And the "scientific" practice of citing sources in parenthesis at the end of every sentence is unnecessarily distracting -- especially when the same source is cited six times in succession, as on pages 173-175. God has blessed us with footnotes, and we should make use of them. On the whole, this is an interesting addition to the five-foot shelf of books decrying what blogger Billy Beck has called "the Clinton Long March." Not the most ground-breaking, nor the one that will arouse the most passionate response from Slick's knee-jerk defenders, but certainly a perspective worth noting. As the reviews on this page show, reactions from both sides of the aisle are pretty much what you'd expect. Mostly, I'm looking forward to seeing whether Mr. Fodeman has anything else to write in the future.
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