Read a Biography of Someone You Despise Today
That’s what it says on my Life in Hell calendar for May 14th. I gave it some thought and I’ll have to say that the list of people I despise is not that long. For this post, I am limiting it to people that have been alive during my lifetime.
Richard Nixon: Because he was a hateful man and he destroyed the office of the President.
Dick Cheney: Because he is a vile, unscrupulous man that seems to exist only to grab power by any means necessary and wipe out all opposition.
Karl Rove: See above.
Karl Malone: Because he represents everything bad about the NBA. His intentional fouls were vicious, he was a flopper, and he traveled every time he drove to the basket.
Sean Hannity: Because he is a liar. Every time I see him he says something demonstrably false to make his arguments for things that are incredibly wrong.
Rush Limbaugh: Because he really is a big fat idiot, and people actually listen to him.
Terrell Owens: Because he represents what’s wrong with the NFL. Always changing teams; always wanting more money; and, in the grandest team sport in America, he thinks only of himself.
I went shopping around at Amazon.com for books about my top three. Here are the books I found along with brief descriptions or reviews:
Dick Cheney
Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency
Above all, Angler is a study of the inner workings of the Bush administration and the vice president’s central role as the administration’s canniest power player. Gellman exposes the mechanics of Cheney’s largely successful post-September 11 campaign to win unchecked power for the commander in chief, and reflects upon, and perhaps changes, the legacy that Cheney—and the Bush administration as a whole—will leave as they exit office.
Richard Nixon
President Nixon: Alone in the White House
“I have decided my major role is moral leadership,” Nixon wrote in 1972 in one of his myriad memos to himself. (As Reeves writes, “Whatever else he accomplished, Richard Nixon produced more paper and tape than any president before or since.”) That resolution quickly collapsed; instead, as the Vietnam War shaded into defeat and protests at home mounted, Nixon sank into a siege mentality, seeing himself as a lone crusader at war with the rest of the world.
Karl Rove
Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Architect of George W. Bush’s Remarkable Political Triumphs
If you ever thought Karl Rove might be a man of questionable morals, but just didn’t know enough to be sure, this book will make your jaw drop. What is truly remarkable is that a man of his low standards, willing to do anything regardless of ethics to win, could be closely associated with the most powerful man in the free world.