Give Me a Break by John Stossel
Give Me A Break by John StosselHow I exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media...
Known for his investigative reporting exposing scams in business, John Stossel turned to the biggest business of all - the government - and found his fan base transformed into his loudest critics. Stossel explores his career from business busting to governmental shenanigans in an honest and humorous way, exposing his own flaws and hypocrisies along with the targets of his criticisms.
Surprisingly, I found myself agreeing with him on most of his conclusions and insights until I reached the end of the book. There I found his stance on drug legalization difficult to buy. Give me a break, Stossel. We can't even regulate drunk drivers and DUI casualties in this country and you want to open the floodgates for even more high drivers? I did readily agree with his suggestions for litigation reform. "Loser pays" sounds like sound advice considering how rampant nuisance suits and frivolous class action suits are. Additionally, I enjoyed the short section on mind over pain where Stossel discusses the work of Dr. Sarno and how pain is often the body's way of manifesting stress. Ignore the pain and it will go away. Sounds daft? Stossel thought so, too:
This sounded totally stupid. My spasms were very severe. My brother has similar back pain. The idea that our pain was in our head was insulting, but I was in enough pain that I was willing to try anything, and in short order, Dr. Sarno changed my life. Just talking to him and reading his book, Healing Back Pain, cured me.
Today, when I feel the twinges of pain, I just tell my brain to knock it off, that I must be angry at lawyers, or my wife, or something. The pain goes away. Amazing.
This approach to pain encapsulates my approach to Depression and Anxiety. When I first was told that my perception of reality was shaped by my attitudes, I thought it was bunk, but I was miserable enough that I thought I'd have a go at it to see if there were any noticeable changes in my life. I was astounded by how skewed my perceptions were once I kept track of what was really happening in my life. My very thoughts affected my day to day living. I then extended this approach to Depression by way of positive thinking to fantastic success. It took years for me to train myself, but now when I feel Depression coming on I tell my brain to knock it off, that I must be tired, or stressed, or hungry, or something and the Depression goes away. Whereas I once spent weeks at a time in a heavy funk, unable to leave the couch, go outside, meet with people, etc, I can now control the sadness and drive it away by will and thought. It is amazing, but many people who read this blog find the concept that Depression is "in their head" very insulting. In my experience, however, no truer concept could be taught. We have so much more power over our mind than we are led to believe.
Why you should read this book: You like to read about creeps, greedy execs, and liars getting it in the neck when they try to scam people.
Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't like seeing the same investigative reporting used to target your pet government institutions.
AD/HD Friendly? Yes. Chapters are broken up in mini-sections, easy to digest, and more importantly, easy to put down.
Comments
I like to read reviews by those who read it before me to determine if a book is good or not and more importantly, the reason/s why they reached those conclusions.
I was wondering if you also reviewed lifestyle books, like Tim Ferriss' 4-Hour Workweek? It's coming out today and I was wondering if you would also do a review for that one.
I don't try to suppress them though, that just makes it worse.
I enjoyed your review, and perhaps I'll read the book sometime. Thanks for sharing the reasons behind why you liked it, and didn't like it (mostly the ending apparently).
I haven't hear of the "4 hour Workweek" but it sounds interesting. I'll add it to my list. Please subscribe to my blog so you'll be alerted when the review is posted (may be a week or two). If you don't do RSS, there's an email subscription link towards the top right of my blog. No spam at all by submitting. I've tested it for over a year. Not a single complaint, so I recommend Feedblitz.
avant-garde89 ~ Interesting point. My ticking falls into two camps. 1) Fatigue born and 2) Stress born. I can't do anything about the fatigue born tics except take a nap, which often helps, but the stress born tics can be eliminated by using relaxation techniques which basically amount to me telling my brain to knock it off. I don't suppress the tics. Can't. They just move to another limb. But my wife can massage them away. Deeeep tissue massage that takes the ticking muscle, rips it off its moorings, flops it onto the floor, grinds it into the ground with her heel, then sticks it back into place when it's ready to behave. That's what it feels like, figuratively speaking, of course. :)
Nihon ~ All in my mind. What cheek! LOL I hope you enjoy the book if you manage to get around to reading it. I found it insightful, not just metaphysically but factually. I enjoy reading about people who pursue a career and surmount the odds to achieve excellence. Gives me hope for myself.
And what a coincidence Errol. I also read a lot of articles (blogs) about Tim Ferriss' book. It's very interesting. I planned to buy a copy, but unfortunately its out of stock now in Amazon. In case you don't know it has been a Best Seller, #8 in Amazon now. I hope they will deliver me one that I ordered.
You might as well get a copy of it Douglas. Keep up the good post!
Thanks!
I hate that I feel like I can change so few things around me. I'm already responding the best way I know how, but it doesn't stop the chronic pain or stress, which leads to yet more health problems, and yet I can't in good conscience leave the environment that is causeing the stress.
Can you see why my blog is so mindless? :)
Tymbr ~ Yes, he covers that. You may not like what he has to say, but then again you may find it helpful.
Generally, he found that people claiming health complications due to environment continued to have problems even when the environment was changed. In his experience, these people used disability to force management to cater to their whims, but at the same time sincerely believed they were experiencing problems. When he related it to his own experience, he found that poor attitude truly did compound whatever problem he was experiencing.
I don't know what your situation is, and remember, his book is about exposing scams so keep that in mind when considering his comments (this was only a very small section in his book), but since you are stuck in your environment you can a) let it get to you, or b) not let it get to you. I found that when I was stuck in a poor environment that was affecting me that I couldn't control (such as the one I am in right now) I could focus on the negatives, which seemed to increase my problems, or focus on the positives, which has decreased my problems. The problems don't go away, by any means, but the lessen in importance in my life and I find that gives me the strength to deal with the.
Good luck. I'm sorry to hear you are experiencing chronic pain. I sure hope you find relief soon.
~Douglas
Thanks for the reply. And you're very welcome. Those words are what you deserve.:-)
I just want to add something, Tim's book "The 4-Hour Work Week" is also out now in Barnes & Noble. If you want a copy just click here: http://snipurl.com/1ilc1.
Thanks again and more power to you Douglas.:-)