Everything You Know is Wrong

John Stossel's new book, Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel—Why Everything You Know Is Wrong, is now out!

Pick up a copy today at LFB.com (or at Amazon).

ABC's 20/20 features the book for an hour tomorrow night.

Also, check out this list of events to see if Stossel is coming to your area.

And no mention of John Stossel is complete without links to his famous interview in Reason here, and his Reason article, "Confessions of a Welfare Queen," here.

Comments

[mobile]

Whoa! John Stossel wrote a book about Jersey McJones?

[Lowdog]

Sweet, he’s coming to Phoenix.

[talboito]

Yay!! To insurance company shills!!!

[Butt'rnut]

They should have called it John Stossel’s New Book (Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel — Why Everything You Know Is Wrong) Is Now Out!

Because three titles is not enough for one book.

[Brian Courts]

Yay!! To silly posts uncontaminated with facts!!

[science]

I wonder how long before this becomes a plagerism or trademark battle?

see http://www.disinfo.com/site/displayarticle9.html

The question is…why does Stossel admit to his downright stupidity in the title of his own book ;~)

[Lazlo]

If Disinfo went after Stossel for his use of the phrase, they’d just get a tap on the shoulder from (among others) the Firesign Theatre.

[cgee]

Science:

A literary title cannot be protected under the U.S. Copyright Act. Period.

Under the Lanham Act (federal trademark statute), the title of a single creative work is not registrable as a trademark. Examples of “single creative works” include books, videotapes, films, and theatrical performances. In contrast, the name of a series of books or other creative works may be registrable if secondary meaning can be shown (i.e., that the title serves to identify and distinguish the source of the goods).

Due to the lack of federal preemption in trademark law, a party may have common law rights in a mark even in the absence of a federal trademark registration.* Nevertheless, single work titles are generally unprotectable even at common law, since secondary meaning is still required. Showing secondary meaning in a single work title is a very difficult task, but is at least theoretically possible.

[*States also maintain their own trademark statutes and registration systems, which coexist with federal and common law trademark rights; however, state trademark laws are rarely relevant in real-life disputes.]

[crimethink]

science,

EYKIW was also the title of a much underappreciated Weird Al Yankovic song, and even then that boat had sailed long ago.

[Akira MacKenzie]

I was driving on the freeway in the fast lane
With a rabid wolverine in my underwear
When suddenly a guy behind me in the back seat
Popped right up and cupped his hands across my eyes

I guessed, “Is it Uncle Frank or Cousin Louie?”
“Is it Bob or Joe or Walter?”
“Could it be Bill or Jim or Ed or Bernie or Steve?”
I probably would have kept on guessing
But about that time we crashed into the truck

And as I’m laying bleeding there on the asphalt
Finally I recognize the face of my hibachi dealer
Who takes off his prosthetic lips and tells me

Everything you know is wrong
Black is white, up is down and short is long
And everything you thought was just so
Important doesn’t matter

Everything you know is wrong
Just forget the words and sing along
All you need to understand is
Everything you know is wrong

[SY]

There’s a seeker born every minute.

Our forefathers took drugs.

Indians can be in two places at once.

Good god, it’s McGog Brothers and Atlantis Carpet Reclaimers.

Wow, I’m getting flashbacks.

[mitch]

cgee,

I thought the Christopher Lee Dracula movies and the Gary Oldman Dracula movie were not just called “Dracula” because Universal had the rights to the title because of their Bela Lugosi Dracula movie. Am I totally wrong, or were the Universal movies with Dracula considered a series?

[Akira MacKenzie]

Coopla’s Dracula would have been pretty good if A) they didn’t try to turn it into a Gorram love story (Curse you Ann Rice for making blood-sucking fiends from beyond the grave into sex symbols!), and B) they got better actor’s to play the Harkers. Sorry, Keanu and Winona just didn’t cut it. Not by a long shot.

Oldman did an excellent portrayl of Dracula especially during his “old” phase. Then again, Oldman always does great heavies. I think I’ve only seen him play one heroic character, and that was in the Harry Potter movies.

[john lichtenstein]

A long time ago (maybe 1981) there was a Reason mailer with the pitch “How many of the things you know are wrong?”. I was hooked and I subscribed off and on for the next 15 years or so.

Are there any instructions on how to gift a magazine to a library? I’m willing to pay for a subscription or two. But it wouldn’t really be any benefit to deliver it to the house since the only print publication I read is the OC Weekly.

[The Wine Commonsewer]

John, to do a gift subscription to a library go here. Thanks.

[The Wine Commonsewer]

John, to do a gift subscription to a library go here. Thanks.

[The Wine Commonsewer]

Hey Low, you live in Phoenix, right? Do you know that crazed libertarian rabble rouser Ernie Hancock?

[M']

Once you read the title the book disappears in a blinding flash of logical contradiction.

[M']

Everything right is wrong again.

[Pro Libertate]

Akira MacKenzie, there’s also his role as Rosencrantz. Or was that Guildenstern?

[johnl]

Thanks TWC. But do I need to make any arrangements with the library, or just have the mag show up? If all you have to do is pay $20 per year to get the mag in a library, this seems like a much more time and cost effective way of making libertarians than manufacturing them at home.

[plunge]

Too bad that Stossel is just as much full of it as the things he profiles. A well documented liar, a dude with an agenda obvious from a mile away.

[science]

To all who felt the need to correct…

You take me too seriously.

I know about the lack of legal justification for book titles. I know about firesign theatre, I just wanted to point out the parallels between disinfo’s book and Stossel’s… jeesh.

So on the 20/20, Stossel includes the myth that elephants are afraid of mice… AS NUMBER 3 biggest myth… and yet it is the only one on the list that I saw that provided any evidence for his claims the myth was false… what a tool.