Book Review for Book Sneeze 3.09.2010

Lies the Government Told You
by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano

I was curious about this book title when I first saw it. I have always been leery about trusting everything the government does and tells us is for our own good. Judge Napolitano takes a literal view of the Constitution of the United States and shows how during numerous times in the past, it has been trampled on by the government and even by the Supreme Court. He sites numerous court cases dealing with many topics from eminent domain, the right to bear arms (and how hard that is to do anymore) to even the ban on trans fats. He claims that the government has gotten too large and is trying to do way more than what it was established to do by the constitution.

While reading this book, I felt like Judge Napolitano was rather disrespectful towards the majority of United States Presidents. He was extremely harsh on them, mostly towards President George H. Bush. He went so far as to call President Lincoln a murderer and was extremely harsh towards many others. I was raised to believe and still do, that no matter what the politics of the President, he is still deserving of respect because he is the President. He was elected to that office by the people, and no matter what the policies he endorses or what he does he still demands respect. If a country can not show respect to it's leader, than how in the world would we expect other countries to give him and even us respect? I did not appreciate the tone of disrespect used towards the office of the president and because of that, I do not plan on reading any more of Judge Napolitano's books.

This book is an all right read. I am sure there are better books out there about the erosion of our Constitutional Rights. I do can not personally reccomend it for an introduction to our Constitutional rights. Or on the basis of disrespect towards the current and previous Presidents.

I was given the book Lies the Government Told You by Thomas Nelson as part of their Book Sneeze program. I was not compensated in any form other than a free copy of the book. All views in this review are mine and mine alone.