Lewis Black's "I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas"

This is a quick & fun read. Lewis Black walks you through a day of his life, a Christmas day, with his thoughts about being a Jew and enjoying Christmas, his life as a bachelor, his friends and their families, etc. In order to spice up the book as a "Christmas" book he mentions his charitable acts. In particular, he has an appendix where he talks you thought a whirlwind USO trip to Iraq & Afghanistan in 2007.

I enjoy Lewis Black's humour. He's a big softee who pushes his "tough guy" image. But a lot of his jokes are at his own expense. The book isn't a laugh a minute. It is like his comedy. It is full of oddball reflections on things with his salty language thrown in.

I confess I like the political bits. He's anti-Iraq war but goes on a USO tour. Here's a few other bits that caught my attention:

Better men than I have struggled to figure out how to live a life of goodness. I try, but I know I'm an utter failure at it. ... I tell you, if I didn't have to live with me, I wouldn't.

I'm also incapable of explaining the inequities in this world. But, truly, can anyone tell me how it is even close to fair that 1 percent of our society has the same amount of money as 90 percent? Seriously. That's no only insane, it's inhuman.

Are we that math illiterate? Is it that difficult to grasp, even at this season when we're supposed to be attentive to goodwill toward others, that something is wrong somewhere in our system if that's what's happening in our world? How many times must we hear it before the inequality of it gets us off our asses and we do something about it? Maybe the other 9 percent who aren't accounted for can help the rest of us out. Jesus Christ!

And this...

Take a good look at our leadership if you don't believe me. You really think thse people are adults? Our leaders don't lead. They spend most of their time running for office, not coming up with good ideas to help us live better lives. They say they have to do it because that's what our election system forces them to do. They say they have no choice. Well, Merry Fucking Christmas, they're wrong. The system works when our elected officials do the job that they were sent to Washington -- and to the state capitals and city halls all over the country -- to do, which is to lead by example. That means they try to figure out through intelligent compromise and negotiation with the loyal fuck opposition how to solve problems so that each side has a stake in the solution to the problem. The political party that is in power gets a little more say in the wording of whatever the bill or the law is, that's all. It's really pretty simple. It's why we have elections, after all.

What did these idiots we elected do in student government? Spend their time masturbating?

Telling us what you are going to do when you are in power and actually doing it are two different things. And the idiots in office don't seem to understand that anymore.

The book is worth an afternoon's read.