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michaelesch's review
5.0
As usual the Judge writes another outstanding book. I love how he takes court cases and breaks them down into laymen's terms. It is also not a book purely about the now. There are court cases dating back to the beginning of our nations. I also enjoy that it is not partisan. It definitely had a libertarian view, which I agree with, but goes after republican and democrat presidents. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about court cases and how the government has been lying to you about your freedoms.
tonydecember's review
4.0
It's good to read the works of a legal analyst who is no mere pundit and actually has significant judicial experience. Judge Napolitano, a libertarian, provides plenty to consider regarding the current state of our laws and constitutional history, and rallies readers to be aware and wary of governmental paternalism.
While some of his views are ripe for heated debate -- on successfully interpreting the Second Amendment to the Constitution, for example -- he does challenge readers to really think more broadly and deeply about our current American reality versus the common mythologies that we have digested since childhood and almost unquestioningly accepted as gospel.
The further you read along in this book, the more Napolitano reveals the frightening world we've inherited from our ruling class.
Must read chapters are those about:
...the loss of our gold monetary standard, and the Federal Reserve being the creation and sole domain of private bankers who "run" the country to this day;
...personal income taxation (representation seemingly immaterial to the tentacles of power) as originally a "temporary" measure of the Civil War, unapologetically revisited during the First World War, solidified with the Sixteenth Amendment and resurrected for good yet again during the Second World War;
...going to war: from flawed domino theories to our Prohibition on drugs;
...the damning, incontrovertible cases against the Bush administration for subverting the Constitution to justify a self-proclaimed war and profoundly illegal uses of torture;
...the not-so-free-as-you-thought U.S. market economy and the financial collapse of the last few years;
...and the irrefutable unconstitutionality of the so-called "Patriot Act" that Bush bequeathed to the nation and that Obama, the civil rights-minded attorney, has -- astoundingly -- maintained as law without even any remote sign of redress.
Quotables:
"There is only one reason that the government takes away freedoms: Freedom is an obstacle to...the lust to dominate."
Andrew Napolitano
"We have one party, the Big Government Party. There is a Republican version that assaults our civil liberties and loves deficits and war, and a Democratic version that assaults our commercial liberties and loves wealth transfers and taxes."
Andrew Napolitano
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money...the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children wake up homeless...."
Thomas Jefferson
While some of his views are ripe for heated debate -- on successfully interpreting the Second Amendment to the Constitution, for example -- he does challenge readers to really think more broadly and deeply about our current American reality versus the common mythologies that we have digested since childhood and almost unquestioningly accepted as gospel.
The further you read along in this book, the more Napolitano reveals the frightening world we've inherited from our ruling class.
Must read chapters are those about:
...the loss of our gold monetary standard, and the Federal Reserve being the creation and sole domain of private bankers who "run" the country to this day;
...personal income taxation (representation seemingly immaterial to the tentacles of power) as originally a "temporary" measure of the Civil War, unapologetically revisited during the First World War, solidified with the Sixteenth Amendment and resurrected for good yet again during the Second World War;
...going to war: from flawed domino theories to our Prohibition on drugs;
...the damning, incontrovertible cases against the Bush administration for subverting the Constitution to justify a self-proclaimed war and profoundly illegal uses of torture;
...the not-so-free-as-you-thought U.S. market economy and the financial collapse of the last few years;
...and the irrefutable unconstitutionality of the so-called "Patriot Act" that Bush bequeathed to the nation and that Obama, the civil rights-minded attorney, has -- astoundingly -- maintained as law without even any remote sign of redress.
Quotables:
"There is only one reason that the government takes away freedoms: Freedom is an obstacle to...the lust to dominate."
Andrew Napolitano
"We have one party, the Big Government Party. There is a Republican version that assaults our civil liberties and loves deficits and war, and a Democratic version that assaults our commercial liberties and loves wealth transfers and taxes."
Andrew Napolitano
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money...the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children wake up homeless...."
Thomas Jefferson
wakela's review
5.0
I read this one for booksneeze.com.
Lies The Government Told You by Judge Andrew P Napolitano is a well written book that pulls no punches. He takes you through some of the most believed lies through the ages and disproves each and every one of them. I won’t go through them all here because that would defeat the purpose of getting the book and reading it. However, if you feel that you know the American government, after reading this book, I can tell you that you really don’t.
One of the biggest lies told is that Abraham Lincoln fought to end slavery. That isn’t quite true. It may be the way your American History teach wants you to think of it, but its not. Did you know that before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, Lincoln had issued a Preliminary Proclamation on September 22, 1862 that stated that he would abolish slavery in the south if they continued to attempt to secede from the Union. Lincoln only saw abolishing slavery as a means to an end. He did it because he felt that by abolishing slavery in the south, the freed slaves would join the ranks of the Union army to fight against their masters. When the Emancipation Proclamation was released, it only applied to the Southern states. Slavery was not abolished in the north by this action.
Did you know that Thomas Jefferson, a big proponent against slavery in his time had 200 slaves at the time her wrote the famous line “All men are created equal”? Apparently, he really didn’t believe what he wrote. He had proposed many laws in order to free the slaves, yet he didn’t do it himself until he passed away. In his will, he had written in to free 5 of his slaves upon his death. Really? 5 out of 200?
Apparently, our country was founded on politicians lying to us and it continues to this day! I really suggest reading this book as it will open your eyes to the lies that this country was founded upon and still continue on today.
Lies The Government Told You by Judge Andrew P Napolitano is a well written book that pulls no punches. He takes you through some of the most believed lies through the ages and disproves each and every one of them. I won’t go through them all here because that would defeat the purpose of getting the book and reading it. However, if you feel that you know the American government, after reading this book, I can tell you that you really don’t.
One of the biggest lies told is that Abraham Lincoln fought to end slavery. That isn’t quite true. It may be the way your American History teach wants you to think of it, but its not. Did you know that before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, Lincoln had issued a Preliminary Proclamation on September 22, 1862 that stated that he would abolish slavery in the south if they continued to attempt to secede from the Union. Lincoln only saw abolishing slavery as a means to an end. He did it because he felt that by abolishing slavery in the south, the freed slaves would join the ranks of the Union army to fight against their masters. When the Emancipation Proclamation was released, it only applied to the Southern states. Slavery was not abolished in the north by this action.
Did you know that Thomas Jefferson, a big proponent against slavery in his time had 200 slaves at the time her wrote the famous line “All men are created equal”? Apparently, he really didn’t believe what he wrote. He had proposed many laws in order to free the slaves, yet he didn’t do it himself until he passed away. In his will, he had written in to free 5 of his slaves upon his death. Really? 5 out of 200?
Apparently, our country was founded on politicians lying to us and it continues to this day! I really suggest reading this book as it will open your eyes to the lies that this country was founded upon and still continue on today.
melissa_reads_books's review
5.0
I loved this book. It is a perfect book for a political science major like me. The book contains 17 lies – some that I knew or suspected already and some that were new. What I liked about it was that I felt it was really approachable but yet still interesting. Even among the sections that I knew something about already, I still found that I was learning new things. I feel like this will be approachable for people who haven’t studied this area. Also, I feel like if you were talking about or debating certain areas, it would be easy to photocopy just that chapter and use it to help you talk. I also love books like this because I feel that Americans do have the right to truth and books like this try and bring it closer. While some might say that this book has a slant (and I’m sure it does – most political books have slants) I felt that a lot of the facts that I already knew in reading it were consistent with what I had already learned. Even if you just checked out the book from the library and picked out only the sections that sounded interesting to you, you’d still learn a lot.
lemonadeaide's review
4.0
This book was, overall, quite good. There were a few questionable segments.
For example, while I did like that Lincoln was not treated like an unsullied savior, the idea that he did not have an opinion about slavery nor speak on it before his presidency is historically inaccurate. He also spoke about slavery in his House Divided speech in 1858. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were almost entirely about slavery, with Lincoln taking a clear anti-expansion position.
It is not much. It is just that most of the information and the ideas in this book are so good and so important, that it is a shame that some misplaced and hyperbolic segments bring down the lot.
I would still recommend it to any person who values the rule of law and the Natural Law of Freedom.
For example, while I did like that Lincoln was not treated like an unsullied savior, the idea that he did not have an opinion about slavery nor speak on it before his presidency is historically inaccurate. He also spoke about slavery in his House Divided speech in 1858. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were almost entirely about slavery, with Lincoln taking a clear anti-expansion position.
It is not much. It is just that most of the information and the ideas in this book are so good and so important, that it is a shame that some misplaced and hyperbolic segments bring down the lot.
I would still recommend it to any person who values the rule of law and the Natural Law of Freedom.