Lies the Government Told You (A Review)

I just finished reading Andrew Napolitano's NY Times Bestseller, "Lies the Government Told You."   The author is a regular on Fox "News" and an anti-abortion proponent so I admit I began reading the book almost certain he would piss me off pretty quickly.   Well, I did get my knickers in a twist fairly early, but not at Napolitano.  

Even if you think you know how corrupt and devious politicians are- and therefore government - this book is going to show you just how heinous it really is.  Covering US history from the Declaration of Independence to the present day, he explains in detail some of the lies we've been told and their far-reaching consequences.


 He's not towing the party line here either. He calls little Bush heartless, lawless and a liar almost every time he's mentioned.  No one is safe in this book: FDR, Eisenhauer, even Abraham Lincoln is taken to task.  (Honest Abe?  Say it ain't so.)


The Chapter, Innocent Until Proven Guilty made me cry (coulda been hormonal, but the stories are still devastating).  The chapters most interesting to me personally were The War on Drugs, The Federal Reserve Shall be Controlled by Congress, and The Right of the People to be Secure.


In chapter 7, Your Body is Your Temple, I find Napolitano's reasons for legalizing marijuana (our bodies are ours to do with as we see fit; and the government should not interfere between a physician and patient) to be excellent reasons for keeping abortion legal as well.  Ironic that the author thinks doctors who perform abortions should be charged with murder.  Wouldn't that be unconstitutional based on the two premises stated above in regard to weed?  (Yes, I understand Napolitano wants to leave abortion laws up to each state government, but the state governments can't defy the US Constitution).  In this instance I find him to be guilty of the same thing he accuses some Supreme Court Justices of: allowing personal views to affect public policy.


The message of this book:  The government knows precisely how to get us to do what they want, when they want, and like sheeple we follow them down the garden path toward tyranny, all the while they use us as revenue and cannon fodder.  It's not supposed to be "them" and "us," it's supposed to be "We The People."


On the whole, I liked the book and I think he makes some excellent points.  It made me think about the long term consequences of the resolutions we're debating today.  Whether they're good or bad is a matter of perspective, but either way this book will give you something to think about.