Two steps ahead of the thought police
By: John Leo ; with a foreword by Peter Jennings.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1994
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 319
Subjects: Popular culture -- United States.; United States -- Social conditions -- 1980-; United States -- Politics and government -- 1993-2001.
Description: Two Steps Ahead of the Thought Police presents one of the liveliest, funniest, and most insightful commentators in America - John Leo. No one gets to the heart of a social issue more quickly, or with more sharpness and wit. Leo goes to an academic convention where teachers attack the "white maleness" of the game show Jeopardy, and he reveals a plaintive letter from SWAM (Straight White American Males) demanding their own minority parade.

He adds up the total number of victims in America - 1.2 billion in a population of 251 million - and explains Leo's First Law of Racial Folly: All setbacks for integration will immediately be hailed as triumphs for diversity. Ranging widely over popular culture, law, education, politics, and language, Leo writes about Ozzie and Harriet, "bodice-ripping" novels, the sneaky side of the sneaker business, Republican buzzwords, and the dizzying effect of an average Mario Cuomo phone call.

When Mattel brings out the first talking Barbie in twenty years, Leo gets an exclusive interview with her. He discusses Indians in their pre-Kevin Costner period, analyzes the strange sexual hostility in Newport cigarette ads, and explains why the innocent-looking word "fair" functions like a grenade when lobbed into legislation. Here is Leo on:.

The "seventy-five deadly isms" plaguing America: "Handing a woman a diet cola could be construed as sizeist, lookist, and sexist, and perhaps handist and laughist as well.".

The problem in hate-crime laws: "The legislation in effect divides America into two classes: those whose skulls can be cracked with a criminal penalty of, let us say, six months in jail, and those whose skulls are better protected and thus warrant nine months in jail. But if the skulls of all Americans are equally valuable, why not just give everyone nine months for cracking any cranium at all?".

Journalism, the official language of journalists: "Suppose you wish to point out that Senator Forbush is a clod. Do you type, 'Forbush, the well-known incompetent'? Not at all. You simply write that the poor fellow's reputation is 'still dogged by doubts about his competence.' Or if you feel he should be indicted, depict him as 'haunted by allegations,' which, as a responsible and thorough reporter, you are obliged to dig up and embellish.".

For Leo loyalists or for readers just discovering him - but most of all for the beleaguered majority impatient with extremists of all stripes - Two Steps Ahead of the Thought Police will be a treasured source of unconventional wit and wisdom.