by Jake Berensen

Created on: July 01, 2007   Last Updated: July 02, 2007

I was told to revise this article because it was "too opinionated" but most of the opinions in here are quoted from the author of the book I'm reviewing. It's a very strongly opinionated book. I used the word jerks to replace another word I don't normally use anyway which the moderators found offensive. That's about the only thing I'm willing to change at this time.

Let me start by saying that I wasn't my idea to put Al Franken in this title that is in the title of the book. The author has an explanation as to why he gave Franken that number which he seems to feel is significant but I don't but it is an amusing story. There are actually several Al's mentioned in the book Gore, Sharpton, and of course Franken, however one thing that most of the people on this list have in common are that they all nearly all liberals the author admits this himself. Yet this book is not about liberals, it is not about any of the people named in the book, either on the list or otherwise. It is a rant about various kinds of people that infuriate a lot of us, and the culture that gives these kinds of people respect. He recognizes that "Not two people in the country will agree on all the people in this book", but everybody will agree with at least a few of them.
Goldberg divides these people into about eleven categories but I feel that nearly all of them can be grouped into four categories although some of them over lap. The categories are: Hypocrites, Jerks, idiots, and just generally annoying people.
I'll give you an example of each of these categories.

For an example one hypocrite listed is a woman who screams at and denounces the drivers of gas guzzling SUV's because of the damage they do to the environment burning so much fuel, yet she herself prefers to travel in a private jet that in a single cross country trip, which she makes quite often, uses the exact same amount of fuel that the average SUV uses in a year.

Among the jerks in the book, are those he puts in the category "White Collar thugs", people like the Enron executives who "screw over everybody from the stock holders to the janitor because making a measly 20 million dollars a year isn't good enough for them."

The idiots include "The Dumb Celebrity" which is a generalization that mentions a very few celebrities which he quotes to prove his point, as well as specifically named individuals such as Anna Nicole Smith, although not Paris Hilton who Goldberg says "has an excuse, she's a moron." Therefore she didn't make the list, but her parents did Rick and Kathy did.

The main reason for the category of generally annoying is Matthew Lesko. Wait who is Lesko? That's what I thought at first too, but we've all seen him. To help us remember he gives us this visual: "You're watching cable television, probably late at night, a commercial comes on, and there's a "grown-up" man wearing big eyeglasses a black suit emblazoned with lime green question marks and while he's prancing around in front of the capitol building in Washington D. C. he's shouting in a high pitched voice about all of the "free Money" the government has just for you"
That's the guy that inspired this category, but I would also use it for Howard Stern and Eminem as well, and a few years ago, I might have agreed with Michael Moore being there as well, but now I'm not sure he deserved to make the list. Moore is number one by the way.

Now I think I have come close to the word limit for my article so I will post it as is. The book is entertaining and you can relate to it, so you should read it. If I find I have more space though I have plenty more comments to make.

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