Larry Elder's "Ten Things"

After reading Michelle Malkin's new book, Unhinged, I was feeling a little down at the hefty monetary and mental expense of a liberal-bashing solutionless book. But, like Lincoln was to Buchanan, I picked up Larry Elder's The Ten Things You Can't Say in America and followed trash with excellence.

I've always been a fan of his columns and having bravery to say what no one else will. The book is sectioned into eleven chapters of the ten things you can't say, along with an updated chapter about the 2000 election debacle:

1. Blacks Are More Racist Than Whites
2. White Condenscension Is as Bas as Black Racism
3. The Media Bias - It's Real, It's Widespread, It's Destructive
4. The Glass Ceiling - Full of Holes
5. America's Greatest Problem: Not Crime, Racism, or Bad Schools - It's Illegitimacy
6. There Is No Health-Care "Crisis"
7. America's Welfare State: The Tyranny of the Statist Quo
8. Republicans Versus Democrats - Maybe a Dime's Worth of Difference
9. The War Against Drugs is Vietnam II: We're Losing This One, Too
10. Gun Control Advocates - Good Guys with Blood on Their Hands
11. The Last Word on the "Stolen" 2000 Election and the New Administration - Will Everybody Please Quit Whining?

It's hard not to go on for hours about the knowledge I soaked up from this book, so I'll just highlight my favorite parts.

Elder declares America needs to "replace affirmative action with affirmative attitude." He makes a personal pledge which contains 32 comitments, including:

"-There is no excuse for lack of effort.
-I will not seek immediate results, as I understand life is a journey and not a destination.
-Others may be blessed with more money, better connections, better environment, and even better looks, but I can succeed through hard work, perseverance, and education.
-I expect sometimes to be teased, even ridiculed. This will not stop me; it will only make me stronger and mor determined."

Light is shed onto the feminist movement and the claim that women make less than men. On the whole, the assertion is correct. President Clinton noted that women made 75-cents-on-the-dollar to their male counterpart. However, if you look at the numbers and attitudes of women, a Korn Ferry study concluded that 14% want to be a CEO of a company. 46% of men have the similar ambition. What Clinton also didn't mention was that females get higher grates in high school than boys, earn more college degrees than men, and outnumber males in graduate schools. Still crying "sexism!"? "Women tend to major in lower-paying 'humanities' fields rather than in higher-paying disciplines such as engineering, science, and technology." When economist Jill O'Neill compared "apples to apples, ... salaries of women in the same industries as men, with the same academic background, who have been on the same job the same length of time," she found "virtually no difference in pay." Elder's solution for women to improve their prospects? Push for lower taxes, less regulation, and a downsized government. I like what I hear.

One of my favorite parts of Ten Things is a satiracle letter from Hillary to Bill concerning the health-care "crisis." In the letter, Hillary admits that the president should just give up on his plan. "215 million Americans DO have health-care insurance." Where the left focuses on the amount of people that are "suffering" without insurance, the media neglects to admit a program like Hillicare would destroy the great benefits of 215 million for the sake of 15% of the nation. Like Elder, I agree that we have the best health-care on the planet and it need not be destroyed by a bigger government. On a side note, why should I have to pay, with my taxdollars, for someone else's abortion, cosmetic surgery, or lung cancer treatment (caused by smoking)?

Ten Things does not just bash the ludacris notions of the left, Elder offers solutions to problems. His ten-point plan says America needs to:

Abolish the IRS: Pass a National Sales Tax
Reduce Government by 80%
End Welfare, Entitlements, and Special Privileges
Abolish the Minimum Wage
Legalize Drugs
Take Government Out of Education
Drop the Davis-Bacon Act
Eliminate Corporate Taxes
Charity from People - Not Government
End Protectionism
Sounds to me like he was a fan of Reagan.

True conservatives should buy this book. Don't check it out from the library - Buy this book. It is worth every penny, and then some. If you are a proponent of small government, personal responsibility, and need stellar examples to stump your Hillary-supporting friends, Elder is your man and The Ten Things You Can't Say in America will become your non-fiction book of the year.