Mona Charen: Useful Idiots

Mona Charen is an American columnist, political analyst, and the author of two best-selling books, Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got it Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First (2003) and Do-Gooders: How Liberals Harm Those They Claim to Help — and the Rest of Us (2005).

Charen usually writes about foreign policy, terrorism, politics, and culture. She regularly writes about her Jewish faith and is also known for her generally pro-Israel views.

On ecological issues, Charen often writes disparagingly about environmentalists, who, she argues, often "may not know what they're talking about".

In this her first book, Charen gives a well written and passionate defense of Cold Warriors by pointing out the lingering blindness of most liberals to the evils of Communism.

Much like Ann Coulter's best seller Treason, Charen indicts the leftist fifth column in America that conspired with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. In fact, this book is clearly more serious and penetrating than the Ann Coulter book. In her defense, Coulter is probably more entertaining.

Charen paints a picture of liberals as communist sympathizers who are always willing to embrace the ideas of economic control and always quick to point the finger of blame at the United States, whenever a crisis arises.

Charen begins her indictment of liberals by telling us of how liberals admire Communism, and embrace the idea of economic equality, while ignoring any of the negative aspects of this type of system. She spends the introduction and the first two chapters talking about the liberal’s love affair with Communism, complete with quotations from some very prominent members of the liberal establishment. 

Charen hits the nail on the head with some of her examples of the hypocrisy committed by the American left. 

For example, she talks at length about Cuba and how many liberals seemed to have embraced Castro as a hero, in spite of the human rights abuses, lack of civil rights, and economic turmoil that has existed since he took power. 

Even when admitting to the atrocities, liberal reports will still look for a positive spin on the situation.

“Useful Idiots" is a great effort by one of the finest conservative writers of our time.  It’s a book that will likely invoke strong reactions from most anyone who reads it.

Another outstanding book, and a one that is highly recommended by The Conservative Review.

David Limbaugh: Persecution

David Limbaugh is the younger brother of talk radio host Rush Limbaugh. He is a brilliant man who holds a bachelor's degree, cum laude, in political science and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Missouri.

He is also a very gifted author and columnist. He has written columns which are carried by Creator's Syndicate, Townhall.com, WorldNetDaily, Jewish World Review, and The Washington Times, and he has written four best selling books:

2010 - Crimes Against Liberty,
2006 - Bankrupt,
2003 - Persecution,
2001 - Absolute Power.
 

In Persecution, his second book, subtitled "How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity," Limbaugh documents and explains in his usual well researched and scholarly way, the various ways in which the radical left is doing their best to undermine and restrict the Christian faith in America.

In this New York Times bestseller, David Limbaugh exposes the liberal hypocrisy of promoting political correctness while discriminating against Christianity. From the elimination of school prayer to the eradication of the story of Christianity in America from history text-books, this persuasive book shows that our social engineers inculcate hostility toward Christianity and its values in the name of "diversity," "tolerance," and "multiculturalism."

Limbaugh explains through court cases, case studies, and true stories the widespread assault on the religious liberties of Christians in America today and urges Christians to fight back to restore their First Amendment right of religious freedom.

Limbaugh spent years researching for this book and has turned out a product that definitely lives up to its name. Whatever your denomination or political persuasion, you will be stunned by some of the facts recorded in this book, especially since they are events happening in a society which claims to be tolerant and pluralistic.

While the ACLU will leap into the fray anytime there is the slightest hint of discrimination against Muslims, Wiccans, or any other religion or pseudo religion, they are silent when Christians are the object of discrimination or bias.

Libaugh demonstrates how the "Separation of Church and State" doctrine has been misapplied to remove Christianity from all public places.

The intent of the Founders wasn't to "protect people from religious expression," but rather to protect your right of religious expression from the state.

At universities where Darwinism, relativism and "sexuality studies" hold sway, Limbaugh says, vocal Christians get packed off to the psych ward.

Most insidiously, Christians are continually subjected to sensitivity training-which often promotes a "homosexual agenda"-and silenced when they object.

The cases Limbaugh cites raise legitimate questions about society's hypersensitivity to religious expression. Another highly recommended book, from a very thorough author.

Jerome Corsi: America For Sale

Dr. Jerome Corsi received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972.

He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality and the co-author of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, which was also a #1 New York Times bestseller. He is a regular contributor to WorldNetDaily.com.

In this incredibly well written and well researched bestseller, Dr. Corsi blows the whistle on a movement to undercut the fundamental principles of limited government that our Founding Fathers fought for and died for trying to establish.

While the radical Left promotes socialism and the radical Right champions unbridled free trade, valuable jobs are being outsourced, our national borders erased, and our dollar destroyed before our very eyes.

Corsi warns us that between George H. W. Bush’s “new world order” and the unprecedented governmental growth and massive redistribution of wealth under President Barack Obama, the United States risks losing the greatest middle class ever created in the history of the world.

With constructive solutions for resisting the global New Deal, reversing our dependence on foreign oil, and strengthening our middle class, Corsi shares important and practical strategies to help American families survive.

The United States can be a major player in the world economy without sacrificing our sovereignty, the strength of our national domestic economy, or the dollar. America is for sale—unless taxpayers stand up and say “NO!” to the globalist political agenda that threatens our great nation’s freedom.

This book is actually a non-partisan indictment of bad public policy. Corsi has plenty of criticism for both the right and the left.

Well written, well documented, thoroughly researched... this book is highly recommended for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of how we got ourselves into the economic mess we are in today, and why our economy may be beyond repair.

Ann Coulter: Slander

Ann Coulter  is an American lawyer, conservative social and political commentator, author, and syndicated columnist. She frequently appears on television, radio, and as a speaker at public events and private events.

Well-known for her conservative political opinions and the controversial ways in which she defends them, Coulter has described herself as a polemicist who likes to "stir up the pot" and does not "pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do."

While attending Cornell University, Coulter helped found The Cornell Review. She graduated cum laude from Cornell in 1984 with a B.A. in history, and received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1988, where she was an editor of the Michigan Law Review.

At Michigan, Coulter was president of the local chapter of the Federalist Society and was trained at the National Journalism Center.

Her second book, Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right, published in 2002, became number one on The New York Times non-fiction best seller list. In Slander, Coulter argues that President George W. Bush was given unfair negative media coverage.

This book is a searing indictment of how the liberal media bias distorts and filters the way Americans get their news.

Coulter points to the various ways in which publishing houses, studios and news networks filter conservative views. It’s no coincidence that there are next to no pro-life directors in Hollywood. Nor is it surprising that reporters drone on and on about the “religious right” but never the “atheist left.” Thanks to Lexis Nexis, Ann Coulter could win that argument in a court case.

Coulter writes, “Leaving nothing to chance, liberals also hide conservative books. The hiding-books trick - long well known to conservatives - eventually became comical enough to be written in the New York Times”. Moreover, since the opening of online stores, conservative book sales have skyrocketed. It’s becoming harder to censor moderate and right wing views.

Bernard Goldberg's book Bias, which will also be reviewed here,  actually lays out a much stronger case that Slander does, but Slander is a much more enjoyable read.

Coulter uses her sharp wit to slice and dice liberal hypocrisy and double standards.

To paraphrase Ms Coulter...

"Conservatives get angry when you lie about them. Liberals get angry when you tell the truth about them."

Overall, a highly recommended book coming from on of America's most gifted and prolific Conservative writers.

Patrick J. Buchanan: Where the Right Went Wrong

Patrick Joseph "Pat" Buchanan is an American paleoconservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster.

Buchanan was a senior adviser to American Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire.

He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996. He ran on the Reform Party ticket in the 2000 presidential election.

He co-founded The American Conservative magazine and launched a foundation named The American Cause.

He has been published in Human Events, National Review, The Nation and Rolling Stone. He is currently a political commentator on the MSNBC cable network, including the show Morning Joe, and a regular on The McLaughlin Group.

Buchanan authored six other books, including the bestsellers, Right from the Beginning, A Republic, Not An Empire and The Death of the West.

Where the Right Went Wrong chronicles how the Bush administration and Beltway conservatives have abandoned their principles, and how a tiny cabal hijacked U. S. foreign policy, and may have ignited a "war of civilizations" with the Islamic world that will leave America's military mired down in Middle East wars for years to come.

At the same time, these Republicans have sacrificed the American worker on the altar of free trade and discarded the beliefs of Taft, Goldwater and Reagan to become a party of Big Government that sells its soul to the highest bidder.

A damning portrait of the present masters of the GOP, Where the Right Went Wrong calls to task the Bush administration for its abandonment of true conservatism including:

- The neo-conservative cabal-liberal wolves in conservative suits.
- Why the Iraq War has widened and imperiled the War on Terror.
- How current trade policy outsources American sovereignty, independence and industrial power.

Buchanan's type of conservatism harks back to a time when America was a self sufficient nation, with more isolationist leanings. A time when we were more concerned with our own problems rather than trying to solve every problem in the world.

Whether or not you agree with Buchanan's take on this, you will be challenged by this book, because he makes a compelling and logical case.

Thomas Sowell: Black Rednecks and White Liberals

Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, humanitarian and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a libertarian perspective.

He is currently a Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Sowell was born in North Carolina and raised in Harlem, New York. He dropped out of high school and served in the United States Marines during the Korean War.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1958 and a master's degree from Columbia University in 1959. In 1968, he earned his doctorate degree in economics from the University of Chicago.

Thomas Sowell is arguably one of the brightest thinkers in America today, of any background or origin. Anyone who thinks Barack Obama is "bright" has never read anything by Thomas Sowell.

Throughout his career in economics, Sowell has served on the faculties of such universities as Cornell and University of California, Los Angeles and think tanks as the Urban Institute and since 1980 the Hoover Institution. He has written over 20 books since 1972.

This book is a collection of essays, with the title essay being Sowell's thesis about the origins of the "black ghetto" culture. Sowell argues that the black ghetto culture, which is claimed to be "authentic black culture", is historically neither authentic nor black in origin.

Instead, Sowell argues that the black ghetto culture is in fact a relic of a highly dysfunctional white southern redneck culture which existed during the antebellum South. This culture came, in turn, from the "Cracker culture" of the North Britons and Scots-Irish who migrated from the generally lawless border regions of Britain.

Sowell gives a number of examples that he regards as supporting the lineage, e.g.,

an aversion to work, proneness to violence, neglect of education, sexual promiscuity, improvidence, drunkenness, lack of entrepreneurship,… and a style of religious oratory marked by strident rhetoric, unbridled emotions, and flamboyant imagery.

Sowell further argues that this "culture" did not exist uniformly among blacks, especially those considered "free persons of color" or those trained in schools operated by people immersed in New England culture (who were, in turn, passing that culture to black students, specifically the need for a strong work ethic).

His essay argues that, among those groups, educational statistics were on par with similarly-trained whites (and higher than southern whites in general), and continued on an upward trend until the advent of multiculturalism.

In the collection's second essay, Sowell explores the origins of antisemitism among those harboring jealousy toward Jews for their financial and entrepreneurial successes. Sowell argues that the jealousy is historically quite common among ethnic groups who have had historic success as economic "middlemen" who derive a profit from the service of bringing needed items to the marketplace. Among other historically persecuted "middlemen minorities" were Lebanese and Chinese immigrant merchants. The resentment is due to a perceived "lack of added value" that these middlemen provide, as it is not easily observable.

The collection's third essay features Sowell's discussion of the history of slavery in Western culture. Sowell argues that Alex Haley's popular mini-series Roots is more myth than reality. Although Sowell acknowledges the West's promotion of slavery, he argues that the same Western culture led the charge in the late 19th century to abolish it in the Western Hemisphere, and that little attention has been given to the continuation of slavery in Middle Eastern countries.

The fourth essay features Sowell's argument that Germany should not be defined solely by the 12-year period of Adolf Hitler's reign from 1933-1945. 

The fifth essay features Sowell's discussion of the early days of Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. and its eventual deterioration from its place of prominence in early Black education, which Sowell argues was a direct consequence of the famed Brown v. Board of Education United States Supreme Court decision. 

The final essay features Sowell's criticism of multiculturalism. Sowell argues that historical events cannot properly be understood through the attitudes of someone living in a different time period (e.g., viewing slavery as right or wrong through 21st century attitudes) but can only be properly understood in light of the economic, political, and social views of the time period in which the events occurred.

This is an important book by a serious and important author, and is another must read for anyone who seeks a real understanding of these issues. I highly recommend this book.

Steven D. Levitt: Freakonomics

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner are economists who use statistical analysis to answer very common questions. And sometimes the answers aren't anything like what you would expect them to be.

While this is not technically a "conservative book" and Levitt is certainly not a "conservative author," I include it here because this book so enrages liberals. But to be fair about it... parts of the book also enrages conservatives too.

The book is a collection of 'economic' articles written by Levitt, an expert who has already gained a reputation for applying economic theory to diverse subjects not usually covered by "traditional" economists; he does, however, accept the standard neoclassical microeconomic model of rational utility-maximization.

In Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner argue that economics is, at root, the study of incentives.

The book's topics include:
Chapter 1: Discovering cheating as applied to teachers and sumo wrestlers
Chapter 2: Information control as applied to the Ku Klux Klan and real-estate agents
Chapter 3: The economics of drug dealing, including the low earnings of crack dealers
Chapter 4: The role legalized abortion has played in reducing crime.
Chapter 5: The negligible effects of good parenting on education
Chapter 6: The socioeconomic patterns of naming children

One example of the authors' use of economic theory involves demonstrating the existence of cheating among sumo wrestlers. In a sumo tournament, all wrestlers in the top division compete in 15 matches and face demotion if they do not win at least eight of them. The sumo community is very close-knit, and the wrestlers at the top levels tend to know each other well.

The authors looked at the final match, and considered the case of a wrestler with seven wins, seven losses, and one fight to go, fighting against an 8-6 wrestler. Statistically, the 7-7 wrestler should have a slightly below even chance, since the 8-6 wrestler is slightly better. However, the 7-7 wrestler actually wins around 80% of the time. 

Levitt uses this statistic and other data gleaned from sumo wrestling matches, along with the effect that allegations of corruption have on match results, to conclude that those who already have 8 wins collude with those who are 7-7 and let them win, since they have already secured their position for the following tournament.

Despite round condemnation of the claims by the Japan Sumo Association following the book's publication in 2005, the 2011 Grand tournament in Tokyo was cancelled for the first time since 1946 because of allegations of match fixing.

The authors attempt to demonstrate the power of data mining. Many of their results emerge from Levitt's analysis of various databases, and asking the right questions. The authors hypothesize that various incentives encourage teachers to cheat by assisting their students with multiple-choice high-stakes tests.

Such cheating in the Chicago school system is inferred from detailed analysis of students' answers to multiple choice questions. But first Levitt asks, "What would the pattern of answers look like if the teacher cheated?" The simple answer: difficult questions at the end of a section will be more correct than easy ones at the beginning.

Dubner and Levitt

Perhaps the most controversial part of the book is Chapter 4, which uses statistical data to prove that the legalization of abortion in 1973 resulted in fewer neglected and unwanted children, and the net result was that 20 years later there was a dramatic decrease in the crime rate.

As uncomfortable as that theory sounds, it is hard to refute. Conservatives claimed that the crime rate came down due to "right to carry" laws and tougher sentencing guidelines. Liberals claimed that the crime rate went down due to gun restrictions like the Brady Bill. It turns out they were both wrong. The truth was... an entire generation of criminals simply wasn't born.