You may have heard the phrase "Reverse Discrimination" this book "Muzzled" is about "Reverse Intolerance" and how society has become intolerant of anyone who isn't tolerant enough. The result is people are afraid to say or do anything that may be politically incorrect, offend or hurt someone's feelings because they might be fired, sued, disliked or worse - be called 'intolerant'.

At the book signing Micheal clarified that he does not think the original concerns people had for wanting everyone to be tolerant and considerate came from some vast conspiracy to muzzle everyone.

This book is more about how out of control not wanting to offend anyone has become and how being offended can in and of itself become a weapon or tool to use to shut people up, make money etc.

So that instead of looking for ways to be sensitive, society is looking for ways to accuse and silence those who aren't as sensitive as they 'should be'. And this fear of offending then keeps us from using common sense, trusting what our gut tells us or speaking openly and honestly. In private life it's annoying and keeps us second guessing our every word, but in the book, Micheal points to the dangers of making "do not offend" a policy for schools, businesses and government.

One example that Micheal gives is school's using purple pens instead of red to correct papers, because red pen is too harsh. I happened to be talking about the book to a friend of mine who is a school counselor and she has actually had a 2nd grade student come into her office crying about a page all marked in red. My friend took the time to explain how the correction is to help her learn, and did not mean that she was a bad student. The student left her office not only with an understanding of the importance of correction in the learning process but also with a bit thicker skin to be able to take something that seemed to be harsh at first.

Last year I went to a book signing for "Flying Blind" - a great book Micheal wrote about the ridiculous indescrimination of the airline security process that prevents people from singling out those most likely to be terrorists.

His writing is as entertaining and informative as his talk show and if you are interested in these sorts of things, a real page turner. If current events and social trends bore you, you might not enjoy it as much as I did.