THE BEST of WAIT WAIT...DON´T TELL ME! (audiobook) by NPR

Published by HighBridge Company/NPR in 2008.
Multiple Performers
Duration: 2 hours, 11 minutes.

If you are familiar with the NPR radio show Wait Wait...Don´t Tell Me then you know what this collection is all about. Clever people playing silly games with news stories. This collection comes from 2006-2008 so the news is a little old. But, then again, you don´t listen to this show for the news - you listen to it for the funny takes on the news by the guests and the panel.

Guests include Michael Moore (note: I am not a big fan of Michael Moore but he was very funny), Ted Koppel, Drew Carey and NBA star Chris Paul. Besides the guests, there is just a lot of silly news and even better commentary on it.

Regular panelist Paula Poundstone was hilarious as was P.J. O´Rourke, Roy Blount Jr, Mo Rocca and Tom Bodett.

If you love this radio show, this is a must-listen.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The Best of Wait Wait...Don´t Tell Me.

Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government by P.J. O'Rourke

Originally published in 1991.
I read the 1992 Vintage Books paperback edition.

Dated but still has teeth.

P.J. O'Rourke goes after the ridiculousness that is the federal government with his trademark irreverent style in his 1991 book Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government.

Some of the commentary is dated (lots of talk about the forgettable 1988 presidential election with Republican George H.W. Bush going against Democrat Michael Dukakis. Also, the first one I voted in) but some of it is incredibly relevant. For example, the story of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA) looking into the mystery of suddenly accelerating Audis 1n 1986 was reminiscent of the same problem with Toyotas that filled the news channels in 2009 and 2010.

Perhaps O'Rourke's most famous line comes from this book: "Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." (pg. xvii in the preface) This sentiment is pretty typical of the book as a whole and one that I generally agree with. O'Rourke talks with former advisors to presidents, shadows a congressman, talks with lobbyists, bureaucrats, policeman, people who live in atrocious government "projects" built for the poor to live in, and more.

P.J. O'Rourke

O'Rourke notes on page 36: "It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money." And, O'Rourke proceeds to show the reader how and makes a solid case for a smaller, leaner government. He also explains how it got to be such a mess.

There are times when he fails to make his case. For me, the chapter on agriculture ("Agricultural Policy: How to Tell Your Ass From This Particular Hole in the Ground") was a nice lesson on overlapping government programs that seem absurd. For example, he bemoans the fact that there are so many government interventions that the marketplace is not really a factor in agricultural policy. That is true enough, but he negates his own argument on page 148 when he notes that "Cheap plentiful food is the precondition for human advancement. When there isn't enough food, everybody has to spend all of his time getting fed and nobody has a minute to invent law, architecture or big clubs to hit cave bears on the head with...we wouldn't grow food, we'd be food." O'Rourke seems to miss (or ignore) that the convoluted system of price supports, payments to keep fields idle and grants have the practical result of keeping plenty of extra food being produced and more than enough producers on hand. That way, if there is a massive drought (like the drought of 2012) there is plenty of food to make up for it. Because it is deals with food, the system is rigged to encourage over-production. Could it be more efficient? Sure. Could it be done smarter? Sure. But, O'Rourke fails to make his case that it should not be done at all.

O'Rourke's look into anti-poverty programs demonstrate that they were not working and that poverty is not easily solved and "You can't get rid of poverty by giving people money." (pg. 128, emphasis his) If nothing else, this chapters reveals that O'Rourke is not simply a know-it-all. He knows that he does not know how to "fix" poverty and that government is certainly no doing a good job of it, either.

This is an entertaining read, even if you don't agree with all of his conclusions. I started this book one day when I misplaced the book I had been reading. In just a couple of pages I knew had to finish this one first. Entertaining, often profane, never boring.

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government.

Reviewed on February 22, 2013.

On the Wealth of Nations by P.J. O'Rourke

Could have been so much more

Published in 2006.

As an economics teacher, Adam Smith's An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations has long been on my "to read" list. I downloaded a free copy of it to my Kindle e-reader, but I haven't seriously considered opening it. I've read summaries of his ideas, perused his quotes and espoused his ideas in class, but I have not had the gumption to read 600 pages of 18th century prose.

When I discovered P.J. O'Rourke had written a commentary on the book I was thrilled. I do enjoy most of what O'Rourke writes and I figured his funny, insightful sarcastic take on things should do quite a bit to punch up a nearly 225 year-old economics text.

Let's start with the basics. Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a professor of both Moral Philosophy and Logic at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He wrote two books, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), usually abbreviated The Wealth of Nations, often considered to be one of the first books on modern economics. Smith argued that freedom, both political and economic, was the ultimate source of happiness because the "invisible hand" of the free market would regulate the market and provide the best living for the most amount of people as possible. It is an interesting coincidence that the American Revolution and The Wealth of Nations both debuted in 1776.

Adam Smith (1723-1790)

I picked up P.J. O'Rourke's commentary on Smith's two books (the title and the cover do not tell the reader, but O'Rourke actually makes commentary on both books - he makes the compelling argument that they are really interrelated) and was expecting big things out of a very small book (242 pages including index, bibliography, endnotes and several pages of selected quotations).

Unfortunately, I did not get big things. O'Rourke's pizzaz and razmataz, his quick wit and his inclination to make a smart comment about everything - traits that can be very endearing and that I enjoyed very much in his book Peace Kills got in the way big time. For example when discussing Smith's arguments about the value of importing goods and how free trade is a good thing. This is a controversial topic even now, more than 200 years later and O'Rourke adds nothing to it - in fact he hurts the argument by noting: "...imports are Christmas morning; exports are January's MasterCard bill." (p. 24)

P.J. O'Rourke

If O'Rourke would have toned down the comments (Note: not eliminate, just tone down), this book would have been much more useful. As it was, I sometimes felt like I was reading Dave Barry's Dave Barry Slept Here: A Short of History of the United States. The attempt to leaven the dry nature of Smith's original work with jokes failed - I just had to work too hard to separate the facts from the jokes.

Did I learn enough about Smith and his thoughts to avoid that feeling of failure I get when I see The Wealth of Nations on my Kindle? Probably, so the book was not a complete failure. However, I feel like the book was a missed opportunity. The right man was picked to write this book, but he was allowed to play around a little too much.

I rate this book 3 stars.

Reviewed on August 22, 2010.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: On the Wealth of Nations by P.J. O'Rourke.

Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism (audiobook) by P.J. O'Rourke

My first foray into P.J. O'Rourke's books

Published by Brilliance Audio
Duration: 5 hours, 48 minutes
Read by Dick Hill
Unabridged

I've read some of P.J. O'Rourke's columns and have heard an interview or two so I knew that I would most likely find one of his books to be most interesting.

To begin with, I found Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism mostly dead-on accurate and depressing. Observations about the War in Bosnia, human nature in general and Israel were factually interesting but mostly deflating. Not that I am overly optimistic about human nature (being both a history major and a Lutheran has given me a fairly low opinion about the character of humanity) but P.J.'s account was even getting to me.

But, in the middle it picks up - ironically with his description of 9/11 and the days that followed in Washington, D.C. I found his observations to be keen, interesting and, in an odd way, hopeful. His descriptions of the pro-Palestinian/anti-war protests was a hoot. Laugh out loud funny.

His commentary on the Nobel Prize winners' open letter about the state of the world issued in mid-2001 was so good that I almost felt sorry that 100 of the smartest people on the planet were up against O'Rourke. He makes mincemeat of their poorly written logic-defying declaration and along the way he had me laughing so hard I nearly cried.

O'Rourke traveled to Iraq during invasion in 2003. Wonderfully observant (his comments on the looters are interesting and make me wonder if they were masterminded in some way) and sometimes laugh out loud funny, especially the scene with the case of beer.

He bookends the book with another very dark, depressing chapter with a visit to Iwo Jima. It was a good and fitting ending, but not at all humorous. But, let's face it, war is tragic, not funny and O'Rourke's good even when he's not being funny.

Expertly read by Dick Hill, who is one of the best audiobook narrators in the business.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism by P.J. O'Rourke.

Reviewed on October 27, 2009.