Review(s) of the day

I meant to link to this sometime ago, Reason magazine's Cathy Young reviewing Bill O'Reilly's Culture Warrior. The whole thing is excellent, but I'm just going to quote the concluding paragraph in which Young recognizes O'Reilly's attempt to categorize millions of his fellow Americans as something less than American.

The O’Reilly Factor always ends with a segment called “The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day.” These days, the most ridiculous item of the day may be O’Reilly himself. But his culture warmongering is no laughing matter. O’Reilly does, at the moment, have considerable influence—and he uses it to whip up hatred of secularists, people with liberal social values, war critics, and others who don’t fit his concept of a good American.

Not incidentally, I currently have a library copy of Culture Warrior and am reading it now (I'd previously only skimmed portions) and will be offering some further commentary in upcoming days.

The second review is The Infinite Sphere on Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future. I hadn't even heard of the book until I saw Jennifer's review, but then noticed a copy in my library the other day and will probably read it myself, eventually.