Rating: 
Summary: Devastatingly funny and true
Review: This book, I'm afraid, is timeless. Though written more than 15 years ago, it sounds as though this hilarious masterpiece was written today about our government institutions. Seldom has the "Inside the Beltway" scene been better analyzed or skewered. The public trough that is government power often corrupts even the most noble and well-intended people, and can turn plain-spoken, honest folk into convoluted gasbags of twisted, tortured reasoning. At points, I had to set the book down because I was laughing so hard...I needed to "come up for air." People from all sides of the political equation will see their enemies in this book...and, occasionally, themselves. The truth can hurt, but P.J. anesthetizes the reader with so much humor that it's not only easier to take, but downright enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: The ABCs of where we're going wrong
Review: This brilliant, tight book is not only the funniest thing written on our government, but it is also pretty darn scary. O'Rourke is straightforward, sarcastic as ever, and willing to admit everyones' role in this mess. Read the book, laugh with it, disagree, but admit that it's oh-so-true and it's our own damn fault.
Rating:
Summary: O'Rourke at his best
Review: This clever, biting satire brings laughs to anyone who is both optimistic and cynical about our government. O'Rourke's take on why we get the government we deserve, and what we get in return is sharply insightful and so very funny that readers can forget (at least for a moment) to be sad because the joke is on us.His budget proposal, from his cuts on bloated agencies to his final cut, the "circumcision" one, is both hilarious and a good, hard look at the way the American federal government throws money around and, often, away. But it's not their fault, O'Rourke wryly observes. We ask them to do this TO us in the name of doing things FOR us. Or, perhaps, do it to the other guy so they can do something for me. The best idea might simply be to take some of the money off the table and not let them have so much to spend or waste. Conservatives will love O'Rourke's condemnations and even the most liberal will have to concede many of his points. He's like Peggy Noonan on acid and, for all we know, he just might be. O'Rourke knows how to live on the wild, not just to comment on the other side.
Rating:
Summary: It's Hilarious. Now Give Me A Grant
Review: THIS is more like it. While various reviewers have called O'Rourke a "fractured voice of rock'n roll Republicanism" and basically complained about this book's lack of redeeming social values (thank God) I'd have to say that this is right up there with some of his best--if you like political satire and you agree that the next time the AFL-CIO or GM gets a new tax loophole, grant, or federal protection, you just might be sick. So it doesn't give a blueprint for Utopia--it just says ..., get government away from us, and points out exactly why. The phrases are tight, funny, and scathingly written. The points are blatant, oh-so-correct, and you'll disagree with them. I didn't, but I'm a radical. Democrats will hate this book, but if they keep an open mind and think for a bit, they might accidentally become Republican. And then I won't have anything to worry about. -SLiGH
Rating:
Summary: One of his best
Review: This is one of P.J.'s best offerings; it's right up there with "All the Trouble in the World." The chapter on farmers and their absurd subsidies is particularly funny.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the Best!!!!
Review: This is the best book written about government ever. O'Rourke is so right about what makes government works, and what makes it work wrong, that it's incredible he is not a legislator or a political science professor at Harvard. Also, he is so funny that the book is a pleasure to read. O'Rourk outdid himself on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Hard-Hitting, Politically Incorrect and Totally Accurate!
Review: This is what I call a good use of humor - to kick the tail end of Big Government and all its Liberal fans. O'Rourke does take shots at Conservatives where they demonstrate their hypocrisy over calls for "smaller government." But, by and large, this book is a scathing denouncement of the Liberal Washington Establishment, which exists to employ and fancy the whims of intellectual élites who think they can run the United States from their bureaucratic central controls better than individual American citizens can run their own lives. O'Rourke is refreshingly irreverent and politically incorrect. It reminds me of years past when a person could speak their mind without worrying over self-appointed censors crying foul. O'Rourke hears the censors but he just doesn't care. Good for him! I hope to read more of his Establishment drubbing and I look forward to scoffing at more manufactured outrage from the Left.
Rating: 
Summary: P.J.'s Pre-Newt Spray
Review: This was intended as a poke at the soft-underbelly of Democratic congressional politics, circa 1990. Now that Newt has come and gone and the Republicans have been in the majority for the best part of a decade, much of P.J.'s attack on old-fashioned Democrat pork barrelling is of historic interest only. Nevertheless, it's interesting that P.J. still calls himself a Republican, since much of his social politics is definititely Libertarian, e.g. his drugs stance. Less funny than his travel pieces but more funny than most other political writers.
Rating:
Summary: You should read this book...You WILL read this book!
Review: Thumbing his nose at the establishment, he is the quintessential muck-raker. There are no sacred cows, no one left unscathed. The last man standing is O'Rourke. I laughed so hard I cried...Then I cried because it really should not be funny at all. It is a must read for anyone who thinks we should trust politicians to do what is best for us. I liken this book to drinking a bottle of Tequila...It sure was fun, but now I have a horrible feeling I am going to be sick.
Rating:
Summary: It is the funniest and most readable book on government.
Review: Truly a libertarian masterpiece. Following in the footsteps of Will Rogers another humorist accomplishes what politicians and the news media can't, explaining what is wrong with the US Government.
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