Newsweek (I know: ha ha loser) writer admits she didn’t read past page 10 of Glenn Beck’s novel The Overton Window, but not only does she keep talking about it, she notes that Beck’s “name rhymes with Hen Peck” (?) and then there’s, er, this:
Beck has the country going haywire for Hayek the same way he’s getting it to read his own book: by employing his extraordinary talent for making anything sound sexy.
***
You know: there are a few conservative pundits who women (and a few guys) think of when they think of sexy. Different ones have their own distinctive, if admittedly offbeat, appeal. Rush Limbaugh? Private jet. Charles Krauthammer? Can’t run away.
But Glenn Beck is absolutely NOT on that list. Nope. (Sorry, dude.)
The word “sexy” must have a weird new meaning now that I’m not aware of. Cuz I’m old and don’t have a J-school degree.
The idiocy gets worse, however.
This woman, who is clearly around the age of 21 and/or a curiously incurious and uninformed individual for someone with journalistic ambitions, goes on to say that:
The Road to Serfdom is a treatise on libertarianism, well-known only in academic circles or among political theory wonks stalwart enough to wade through the 60-page introduction and chapters on “Planning and the Rule of Law” and “The Prospects of International Order.”
Now, I don’t have a byline at Newsweek, but somehow I knew most of the following the top of my head — but here’s Wikipedia, because it’s late, my eyeballs are melting and cut and paste is easier:
The book was originally published by Routledge Press in March 1944 in the UK and then by the University of Chicago Press in September 1944.
A condensed version of the book written by Max Eastman was then published as the lead article in the April issue of Reader’s Digest, with a press run of several million copies.
This condensed version was then offered as a Book of the Month selection with a press run of over 600,000 copies.
In February 1945 a picture-book version was published in Look magazine, later made into a pamphlet and distributed by General Motors [ME: which, at one time, had a whole hell of a lot of employees…]
The book has been translated into approximately 20 languages (…) The introduction to the 50th anniversary edition is written by Milton Friedman (another recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics 1976).
In 2007, the University of Chicago Press put out a “Definitive Edition.” In total the book has sold over two million copies.
On June 9th, 2010, the book became the #1 book sold at Amazon.com, achieving best seller status [after Glenn Beck mentioned the book on his TV program.]
