DanO

The not so subtle mission of this book seems to be to erect a delicate strawman. Built as a caricature of liberal lawyers and dressed as a panty waisted Democrat politician. In swoops the hyper-masculine, do no wrong, selfless soldier to crush the strawman under his impeccably spit shined boots. As long as you are scared spitless into never voting for anyone left of a Neo-conservative, the story will have accomplished its task!

If you can roll your eyes and dismiss the partisan drivel, you can salvage a decent plot from the book. It wouldn't have taken a great deal of effort to fashion a believable fine line argument to give a prosecutor a less silly reason to charge a front line soldier with a crime than the one, I'm guessing, Grant Blackwood came up with. I'm giving Tom Clancy the benefit of the doubt here. I know he's a right winger, but I've never noticed he was so lazy in masking his contempt for Democrats. There are flashes of Clancy at his best, detailing the finer points of military tactics and intelligence subterfuge, but only small pieces of sources and methods that will help the enemies of America terrorize our citizenry.

A great listen. Anyone who's read Freakonomics will appreciate the full story that was touched on in Steven Levitt's book. Gang Leader for a Day is the in-depth look at the experiences of the author that was dealt with anecdotally in Freakonamics. This book will give you a much better understanding of the lives of tenants in Chicago Housing Authority projects. It will make understandable and logical the way people in poverty adopt coping strategies that seem outrageous to middle class folks who are unable to sympathize.
If you can't tell from the synopsis whether you'd enjoy this book, I highly recommend Freakonomics. It'll give you everything you need to know to realize that this book is worth the cost. If you're pretty sure you'll be getting BOTH those books, I'd recommend listening to THIS one first. The short treatment it gets in Freakonomics will just spoil the surprises in this one. Then you'll be able to skip over that section when get to it in Levitt's book.

Terrific book, but if you're a republican you will HATE it. Aside from the evidence of the relative safety of guns, this book pretty much repudiates right-wing theories of human nature. Don't get me wrong, the book isn't written with any political slant, it's just that as I was listening I couldn't stop imagining the effect the facts presented would have on my conservative friends.
The authors explain the methods and limitations of their research and clearly identify when they are stating their opinions or hypothesis'

If you desire to put actions behind your words but are unsure of how to do it, this is the book for you. Plenty of options to choose from depending on your level of commitment. Pick an easy one, realize how simple and satisfying it is, then move on to a choice that takes more effort. See what a difference you really can make!
Well written and well spoken.