Quote of the day
“…status is not the American Conservative position. Rather, conservatives believe that change for change’s sake is folly. What kind of change? At what cost? For the liberals and progressives, everything was expendable, from tradition to individualism to “outdated” conceptions of freedom. These were all tired dogmas to be burned on the alters of the new age.”
Jonah Goldberg, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning.
Dr. Pournelle points out a sad fact about this book and the majority of those who study political science:
Goldberg’s book is an anomaly: serious students of political science shouldn’t find anything here they didn’t already know. Alas, I had to say “shouldn’t”, because a very great number of people who consider themselves serious students of political science will be shocked and astonished to discover that Fascism, Progressivism, and modern American Liberalism have many intellectual roots in common. Roosevelt’s New Deal incorporated many elements of Italian Fascism, and in fact before the mid-30’s many Western statesmen had admiring things to say about Fascism and about Il Duce Mussolini who made the trains run on time and brought prosperity — or its illusion — to Italy. Goldberg documents all this as well as the Jacobin roots of both Fascism and Progressivism. The notion that human life can be improved by central planning and tinkering with the legal and economic system is the common thread to them all.
Monday Book Pick: The Mote in God’s Eye
The Mote in God’s Eye by Dr. Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven
One of the classics of modern SciFi, vetted by the Grand Master Robert A. Heinlein prior to publishng. A brilliant first contact novel set in the Second Empire of Man.
Monday Book Pick – PsychoShop
Psychoshop, by Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny
Roger Zelazny finished a manuscript that Bester didn’t complete before his death. The result is an interesting blend of the two writer’s styles complete with really well written fight scenes (Zelazny was an Aikido instructor for years).
Political Books
A short list of what you should be reading.
The Constitution of the United States of America
Liberal Fascism by David Goldberg
Atlas Shrugged By Ayn Rand
The New Thought Police: Inside the Left’s Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds by Tammy Bruce and Laura C. Schlessinger
The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark Levin
Monday Book Pick – Uller Uprising
Uller Uprising, by the late H. Beam Piper
A brillian SciFi telling of the Sepoy Rebellion. Set early in Piper’s Future History series timeline, this is a solid bit of adventure/Military Science Fiction. For you Military SciFi fans, there is character, only mentioned once, named “Major Falkenberg” of Falkenberg’s Rifles.
Monday Book Pick
The New Thought Police: Inside the Left’s Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds by Tammy Bruce and Laura C. Schlessinger
Tammy Bruce is a classic Liberal, not a leftist. A very important distinction these days. Unlike the far left extremists that have hijacked the democrat party, Classic Liberals are defenders of Free Speech.
Number 1 at Amazon!
The #1 seller for all books at Amazon today is Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto
Barely two months into the administration of the most far left extremist President in over 30 years, and a book called a “manifesto for the conservative movement for the 21st century”, and explains how conservative principles are “always an enhancement to individual freedom” is flying off the shelves and into the minds of Americans.
Could it be the centrists who voted for “Change” without looking too closely at just what that change was are having a bit of buyers remorse? It’s a safe bet that Conservatives and right of center centrists who stayed home on election day because they just weren’t that thrilled with John McCain are figuring out that the lesser of two evils wasn’t such a bad idea after all?
It does appear that the left’s crowing about the “death of Conservatism” after our Dear Leader’s election, was a bit premature.
Also available as an audio book on CD.
Originally published at the e-Ramblings blog.
Another one bites the dust
Filed under: Culture of Corruption, Our Dear Leader, Politics
Yet another one of BHO’s selections, this one for Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has removed his name from the running. It was disclosed that Jon Cannon was on the board of a nonprofit group faulted for mishandling federal grant money.
A 2007 EPA inspector general’s report on the foundation alleged a variety of irregularities involving $25 million in federal grants to assess water quality problems, including those at farms and pork processing facilities. The problems with accounting, improper cash advances and similar violations stretched from 1998 to 2005, according to the report.
Monday Book Picks
Each Monday, I post a book I enjoyed and think my dear readers will as well.
The latest was On Basilisk Station by David Weber.
The first book in David Weber’s best selling Honor Harrington series. Often, and accurately called “Horatio Hornblower in Space,” this series tells the tale of an Officer in Royal Manticorian Navy. In this book, she is a Commander and has just received her second “Hyper” command. Set in the far future, the series has a definate “Age of Sail” feel, with missle broadsides instead cannon broadsides.
Here is this year’s archive and last year’s archive.