Lies

Aerich · 08-20-2004, 05:00 PM

Anybody else read this? Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, by Al Franken. It's an interesting read, although a bit too heavy on personal attacks and the conservative-liberal divide for my taste. I'm approximately halfway through.

I'm posting this here instead of in CE because I want to have a semi-literary discussion of the book's merits, not a series of opinionated rants that boil down to "Al Franken is stupid" vs "No he's not."

Aerich · 08-23-2004, 02:04 PM

About 3/4 through now; I'm reading other books as well, so I haven't finished yet.

A few of Franken's chapters are filler. I'm specifically pointing to the fictitious one where he sets all the conservatives he dislikes (about 95% of them, as far as I can tell) in Vietnam. It seems to serve no purpose except to demean his opponents. The chapter has no redeeming qualities, unless you have the bathroom sense of humour of a six year old - and even then, only the first two pages are even mildly amusing.

But in a shocking juxtaposition of good quality and bad quality, the preceding chapter on the Democratic senator's funeral is insightful and sad (in contrast to inciteful and sad). The funeral chapter shows political spin and media slant at their worst.

08-20-2004, 05:00 PM	#1
Aerich Lord Ao Join Date: May 27, 2004 Location: Canada Age: 42 Posts: 2,061	Anybody else read this? Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, by Al Franken. It's an interesting read, although a bit too heavy on personal attacks and the conservative-liberal divide for my taste. I'm approximately halfway through. I'm posting this here instead of in CE because I want to have a semi-literary discussion of the book's merits, not a series of opinionated rants that boil down to "Al Franken is stupid" vs "No he's not." __________________ Where there is a great deal of free speech, there is always a certain amount of foolish speech. - Winston S. Churchill

08-23-2004, 02:04 PM	#2
Aerich Lord Ao Join Date: May 27, 2004 Location: Canada Age: 42 Posts: 2,061	About 3/4 through now; I'm reading other books as well, so I haven't finished yet. A few of Franken's chapters are filler. I'm specifically pointing to the fictitious one where he sets all the conservatives he dislikes (about 95% of them, as far as I can tell) in Vietnam. It seems to serve no purpose except to demean his opponents. The chapter has no redeeming qualities, unless you have the bathroom sense of humour of a six year old - and even then, only the first two pages are even mildly amusing. But in a shocking juxtaposition of good quality and bad quality, the preceding chapter on the Democratic senator's funeral is insightful and sad (in contrast to inciteful and sad). The funeral chapter shows political spin and media slant at their worst. __________________ Where there is a great deal of free speech, there is always a certain amount of foolish speech. - Winston S. Churchill

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