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45 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
You go, girl!, February 28, 2004
Conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham decided to write a book called "Shut Up and Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the UN Are Subverting America" in an effort to throw a spotlight on the folly of our so called "leaders." Dismissed as a hateful screed by hysterical shills for the Left, the author's book is in reality an intriguing, funny, and forceful call to action for American citizens weary of the idiocy that passes as "liberalism" today. Far from being the friendly, inclusive ideology of the common man, many of today's leftists are narrow minded, intolerant bigots full of self-loathing guilt about the success of America. By the way, I don't pay attention to any particular radio programs endorsing either side of the political spectrum, largely due to my increasing annoyance with both right and left, but I would definitely give Ingraham a listen based solely on this book. Would I condone everything she said lock, stock, and barrel? Definitely not, but it's always fun to see one of these self-righteous leftist zealots take a shot on the chin.Who are the elites who spend every waking minute making the rest of us miserable? According to Ingraham, they occupy prominent positions in the entertainment industry, politics, academia, the judiciary, and the United Nations. You know a lot of them by sight: Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, Barbra Streisand (grrr), Jane Fonda (double grrr), Ted Kennedy, Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Susan Sontag, Cornel West, and a million other dupes espousing blatant "Hate America" ideologies. Ingraham even includes a pictorial "rogue's gallery" in the middle of the book in case you don't know the faces of our anti-American enemy. Many of the individuals listed above work in Hollywood, a place that has had such a corrosive effect on this country that anyone who says and believes otherwise ought to reserve themselves a padded room at the local mental motel. Through certain movies, public appearances, and other media driven avenues, these elites attempt to instill their unhealthy ideas on the rest of American society. According to Ingraham's elites, America is an intolerant society dominated by ignorant bumpkins suffering from a mental disability called religion who want to impose their backward, parochial views on every other part of the globe. The elites urge us to take the United Nations and socialist Europe as the model for what America should become: a powerless cog in a world government presided over by leftist overlords. It seems communism never went away. What a surprise. The author heaps scorn upon Hollywood, but reserves most of her venom for other areas of elite control, specifically academia, politics, and religion bashers. Loads of books outline in greater detail the horrific conditions of America's left wing indoctrination centers (read: colleges and universities), so Ingraham's summary doesn't add much to the historiography. What it does do in relatively few pages is introduce the novice reader to some of the wackos in higher education. Unfortunately, the insanity found at the university level has now filtered down to the earliest grades in public schools. Subversion of the education system wouldn't be possible if the political organs didn't provide a comfortable home for cranks, and the author writes in detail about the lunacy taking place in the federal government. The judicial branch carries most of the responsibility for the problems we face. Instead of interpreting the law, these guys and gals use the bench to launch convoluted social programs impervious to the will of the electorate. One field of contention with the courts concerns the status of religion in the public sphere. The author outlines elite efforts to make secularism the state religion. While I am definitely not a Christian (or a member of any other faith), I cannot wait for the day when some lawyer steps up in front of a court and successfully argues secularism has become a religion endorsed by the government in direct violation of the Constitution. You know it will happen. "Shut Up and Sing" isn't a perfect book by any standard. Ingraham, for instance, fails to recognize the true nature of the elites in America. What she describes in this book transcends the political labels of "Republican" and "Democrat." And while the author takes President Bush to task over the mess that is immigration policy in the United States, and criticizes corporate greed and the increasing monopolization of American business, she simply cannot bring herself to elevate the debate above right versus left. Both parties are taking us down the road to ruin because both parties pay homage to the idea of "democracy." Democracy, like communism, sounds great on paper but has been a disaster in practice. A slothful, indifferent public too busy enjoying bread and circuses cannot make democracy work. Turning over your civic duties to others leads in large part to the types of problems described in this book. A return to the republican virtues our founding fathers endorsed in the Constitution is the best hope for the country. "Shut Up and Sing" is an intriguing book well worth your time. I fear for the future every time I read books like this one, regardless of their political orientation, because the country has degraded so far in such a short time that revolution is probably the only possible remedy now. Since revolutions tend to be rather messy affairs involving the deaths of thousands if not millions of people, and usually take divergent courses never imagined at their inception, I would rather see a more rational solution to our problems.
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