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Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government | 
| Authors: Glenn Beck, Kevin Balfe
Publisher: Threshold Editions
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $12.15
as of 11/27/2009 00:20 CST details
You Save: $17.84 (59%)
New (56) Used (14) Collectible (3) from $12.15
Seller: vrprice72
Rating:  377 reviews
Sales Rank: 11
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Pages: 325
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 7.6 x 1
ISBN: 1416595015
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.932
EAN: 9781416595014
ASIN: 1416595015
Publication Date: September 22, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
FUNNY.FRIGHTENING. TRUE. It happens to all of us: You're minding your own business, when some idiot informs you that guns are evil, the Prius will save the planet, or the rich have to finally start paying their fair share of taxes. Just go away! you think to yourself -- but they only become more obnoxious. Your heart rate quickens. You start to sweat. You can't get away. Your only hope is...
...this book.Glenn Beck, author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers An Inconvenient Book and Glenn Beck's Common Sense, has stumbled upon the secret formula to winning arguments against people with big mouths but small minds: knowing the facts.
And this book is full of them.The next time your Idiot Friends tell you how gun control prevents gun violence, you'll tell them all about England's handgun ban (see page 53). When they tell you that we should copy the UK's health-care system, you'll recount the horrifying facts you read on page 244. And the next time an idiot tells you that vegetable prices will skyrocket without illegal workers, you'll stop saying "no, they won't" and you'll start saying, "actually, eliminating all illegal labor will cause us to spend just $8 a year more on produce." (See page 139.) Idiots can't be identified through voting records, they can be found only by looking for people who hide behind stereotypes, embrace partisanship, and believe that bumper sticker slogans are a substitute for common sense. If you know someone who fits the bill, then Arguing with Idiots will help you silence them once and for all with the ultimate weapon: the truth.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 377
 BRILLIANCE AND SEXY!!! November 26, 2009
Mommy69 (USA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Very interesting book!!! Not only should this man be in Office, but be the President of the United States. Glenn Beck is also sexy, which would make those long strung-out presidential speeches amusing. The book is a MUST HAVE. You don't have to be a Conservative to read the book.........JUST AN AMERICAN.
Fact not Opinion November 24, 2009
John Atkinson
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Great book that should be required reading. With the vast majority of the media being extreme liberals/progressives and with the government dictating progressivism through our education system, the American people are hidden from the truth. This book provides factual evidence of why our country is falling from the ranks of the elite nations.
conservativeadolecent November 24, 2009
ConservativeAdolecent (Wyoming)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I think this is a great book. The way Glenn Beck explains key issues such as health care,gun control, and illegal immegration is right on the nose. He uses his sense of humor as well, in portraying his ideas. I'm a teenager who is interested in history as well as politics and I absolutely loved reading this book. It is both entertaining as well as truthful in a world full of deception.
 Preaching to the converted November 24, 2009
William Whipple III (Middletown, Delaware)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The jacket flap describes "Arguing with Idiots" as funny, frightening and true. Does it measure up?
FUNNY - The book's main claim to humor, it seems to me, is that Beck presents himself as a buffoon who is both scorned and feared by his ideological opponents. Call them progressives or liberals, maybe "idiots" (although it is explained that this term refers by people who arrive at their opinions without considering the facts, and that even Beck has been an idiot when it comes to home ownership).
Thus the front cover displays Beck decked out in what appears to resemble a German (Nazi era) military uniform, and the back cover displays him in civilian garb with tears in his eyes surrounded by negative quotes from various sources, e.g., Time Magazine's comment that he is "leading the lunatic fringe."
Ha, ha! The presentation might be funny if Beck really was a buffoon, but that's mainly an act.
FRIGHTENING AND TRUE - If one tends to agree with Beck's line of thinking, then these adjectives may be seen as merited. His pitch goes something like this.
The relentless trend towards bigger, more expensive, and invariably inefficient government will stifle free enterprise. Although the politicians are fonder of talking about the programs they support than the taxes (or costs imposed on business) required to pay for them, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Rising taxes and/or prices will fall mainly on the productive members of society, eroding their incentive to work and invest. As growing numbers of people become free loaders, the system will collapse - unless "We the people" do something to stop this from happening.
Personally, I share most of these concerns. And the case is made with logically and reasonably well researched chapters about the capitalist system, right to bear arms, education, energy, unions, illegal immigration, the nanny state, home ownership, fiscal responsibility, failed presidential leadership, healthcare, and the U.S. Constitution.
The historical examples are instructive, such as an account of how President Grover Cleveland vetoed a bill in 1887 that would have aided Texas farmers suffering from a catastrophic drought. "I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution," said Cleveland, and he went on to make the point that federal aid would serve to undermine private charity. Subsequent stories about Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, LBJ, and other presidents down to the present indicate a very different inclination, which has had a lot to do with the progressive reinterpretation of the Constitution and other trends that Beck decries.
However, I dislike the formatting of the book. Too many sidebars loaded with trivia and cutesy pictures in the margin, which tend to disrupt the flow of the main discussion.
There are also some surprising omissions, e.g., a two-page table (pages 18-19) of government organization studies over the years, starting with the 1905 Keep Commission under Teddy Roosevelt, leaves out the Hoover Commissions (under Truman and Eisenhower, respectively).
Finally, Arguing with Idiots is ill suited to change minds. The discussion is one-sided, lacking novelty or depth, and the solutions sound like wishful thinking. So if any progressives and/or liberals buy the book, they will probably not take it seriously.
Glenn Beck's Arguing with Idiots. November 24, 2009
K. Williams (Tennessee)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Love the book,again Glenn does a Great job in writing, This book is loaded with facts, You can stop stupid arguments with stating fact to those who just state propaganda instead of the truth.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 377
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