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2 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Close Your Eyes, Click Your Heels, and Repeat After Me Nov 17, 2009
On a whim, I bought Glenn Beck's book (paperback) because it looked like one that could be read in the car (while my inamorata was buying shoes), or easily read in the bathroom. I discovered I could do both, just not the easily part.
Mr. Beck presents his views on the government, money, taxes, the political class, the perks and privileges of the same, progressivism, our future possibilities and the 9/12 Project. He covers these topics in a mere 111 pages. Thomas Payne's "Common Sense," Beck's inspiration for the book, follows. Including his sources, the book manages to creep up to 174 pages.
He describes Republican and Democrat politicians as the political elite, that they are not interested in the welfare of the American people, and feel their office is essentially their birthright. He turns on those he calls progressives from Republican Theodore Roosevelt to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. He chastises Roosevelt for appropriating some of the most beautiful country on earth as national parks, and he charges Wilson, or at least as far back as him, for putting a productive education system on a misguided philosophy of teacher-student relationships that doesn't work and causes our students to fail. His central theme is that government is bad, corrupt, inept and constantly looks for new ways to rob citizens of their personal liberty by controlling more and more of their lives from education to guns, and that the free enterprise system is the only guarantor of liberty and wealth.
The author's writing is easy to read and his concepts are easy to grasp. I found myself agreeing with him regarding the misuse of eminent domain that is given to private developers instead of being given over for the public welfare. Unfortunately, this is all I can give him credit for.
Beck uses the term, "Common sense tells us..." to death. By page 40, it had the same effect of being in a car listening to kiddies singing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall," kids who were determined to go to zero. To be sure, Beck's idea of common sense is from his own frame of reference rather than consensus. He also sounded like a manic cheerleader going: America! America! Rah, rah, rah, sis-coom-bah! "Stand together!" "Rise up against the political elites." "Don't let them take your guns!" In all this cheerleading, Glenn Beck tells you what to do, with everything except pom-poms, but doesn't tell you how to do it. Some of his writing could be downright patronizing, and his message is pure "teabag." Equally annoying were his quotes without references or those tiny little superscript numbers, which would have allowed me to verify its context more easily. I got the sense of a sophist with little imagination or depth.
Even though he decries extremism in any form, he has associated with, and even praised extremists on his program such as Michael Hill, the founder of the white supremacist League of the South; Thomas Naylor, a secessionist, head of the Second Vermont Republic, and Tom Woods who wrote the "Politically Incorrect Guide to American History," which proclaims that the Civil War didn't exist--it was the War for Southern Independence or the War of Northern Aggression. Woods even filled in for Beck when he had his appendix removed. (Maybe they should put it back in)?
The most disturbing thing in Beck's writing was what he said about Progressives whom he describes by how they think, how patient they are at getting what they want (your liberties), and what they are trying to do (control you), and how subtle they are trying to do it (taking away your guns). It sounds like there has been a secret cabal from T. R. Roosevelt handed down to Hillary Clinton, and if Beck is so attuned to how Progressives think and ask, I have to ask, how does he know? Was he even sneakier at infiltrating their meetings and thought processes than he claims they are? e.g. a deep-seated hatred of white people. Such collective attribution sounds paranoid. If he is not paranoid, it appears he is attempting to inflict it on his readers. Neither possibility appears healthy, and I don't remember Thomas Paine's writings inspiring such paranoia or distrust of government.
Glenn Beck is a very influential voice in American media, but I cannot imagine how this book will increase that influence except for the completely ignornant and insecure. If you are still not sure if you should buy this, stand in your living room, close your eyes, and click your heels and repeat, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat: "Common sense tells us."
If you can do that fifty times, you've read at least half the book already.
 hmmm....somewhat confused? Nov 17, 2009
I do not profess to be an American historian or an expert in contemporary American politics - but believe I keep myself fairly well informed.
I am, however, somewhat confused by the content of this book.
I understood Glenn Beck's common sense and Thomas Paine's common sense - yet, placed side by side I personally failed to draw a correlation or comparison between the two and cannot grasp the "inspiration" in Beck's common sense.
I will sign off now - writing anything further may reveal my naive ignorance.....or not...
1 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 A healthy anger? Nov 13, 2009
This book energized me to go out and do something. Too long have we let our politicians do what they want with our money and time. It always seemed so complex, but really, they are making it seem that way. Glenn lays out the facts in an easy to read, practical, dare I say, common sense, approach and simply asks "WHY".
3 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Serious Food for Thought Nov 12, 2009
This book is a serious, well thought out and well written discussion of our present political situation and how it relates to our forefathers original intent. Early on, the subject matter is so depressing that I could only read a chapter at a time. However, further into the book, Glenn begins to lay out the solutions to our dilemma and an air of hopefulness pervades the material. I actually enjoyed the book and am now using it as a reference. It also contains a copy of Thomas Paine's original "Common Sense" which is a good reminder of the patriots that preceded us and why we should fight to keep our country on the path they intended.
4 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 Beck COMPLAINS, but doesn't provide a SOLUTION! Nov 12, 2009
In this book, Glenn Beck provides lots of ways to complain about the U.S. government. In fact, it feels like he's yelling during most of the book. However he provides little in the the form of solutions or ways the reader can solve the problems he lists. At best he tells you to vote for people who will fix things. Plus, he twists statistics to try to prove some points without sharing all the numbers, which would tell a different story. Off the top of their heads, I bet most readers could write a list of complaints about the government and cover 80% of what is in this book, so why bother hearing someone else complain about them? Whining increases stress levels while solutions help lower stress. Don't waste your time reading this book. Spend that time coming up with your own solutions.
I agree with others here who explain that Beck's chapters have little connection to Thomas Paine's work. Beck just used Paine's title as a way to generate publicity for his own book. Sure, he quotes the founding fathers and Paine at times, but there is no real link to Paine's book.
Don't waste your time reading this book.
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