38. I Ain't Got Time To Bleed

I Ain't Got Time To Bleed: Reworking the Body Politic From the Bottom Up - Jesse Ventura

This was an autobographical book written by a very interesting man.

He wrote this book while he was governor of Minnesota. The first part of the book discusses his political beliefs and reasons for having them. He is definately not a Democrat or a Republican. He ran as a Reform Party candidate, like Ross Perot.

Ventura describes himself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, and therefore a centrist, like seventy percent of the population of our country. I have no idea if those statistics are correct, but that is what he claims.

After the discussion of his political beliefs he goes into his life story. He starts with his childhood and life growing up. He was definately not a clean cut kid. He got into some trouble and was a bit mischevious.

At 18 he joined the Navy and became a SEAL. He spends wuite a bit of time writing about the SEAL training and his time in the Pacific during the Vietnam war. He spent six years in the Navy and then returned home as a civilian.

At that time he was just cruising around in his Harley with the Mongols motorcycle club in southern California. His account of what this group did was very different than what was told in the book Under and Alone that I read a few months ago. Very different.

There is a large chunk of the book written about the wrestling years also. He discusses some of the secrets of the game and the behind the scenes manipulation that occurs to keep control of the whole show. Interesting stuff, but nothing I had not heard before in other books and interviews.

Then the acting career kicked in. Predator, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, was the big break. Followed by Running Man. Many other movies and television shows followed.

From there he ended up in radio doing talk shows and stirring up controversy. Isn't that what radio is for?

And then the political career. it started because he got mad at his town board of directors and Mayor for doing projects the people did not want or need. So, he ran for Mayor and won. From there he moved up to Governor and won that also. Ventura spends time telling stories of events during the campaigns and during his tenure in office. Some of those stories are quite interesting.

I learned that I like the man's ideas for the most part, but he also has some political idealogy that I would have to think long and hard to accept. Who knows, maybe he can be President, though he says repeatedly there is no chance that will happen. Then again, the book was written in 1999. Much has changed since that time. ;-)