Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Classic!
Many of the stories have been adapted to film, among them The Last Mimsy (Mimsy Were the Borogoves), Arena and Charlie (Flowers for Algernon.) These are classic stories in every sense of the word. Whether you like Science Fiction as a genre or not, these stories are must-reads.
Labels: books
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Waiting for Spring
****
This good lookin' lady is R.J. Keller. She is a friend of mine and has given birth to the novel she is holding in her hand, "Waiting for Spring." The book has received good reviews, and I can personally recommend the author.
Check it out!
This good lookin' lady is R.J. Keller. She is a friend of mine and has given birth to the novel she is holding in her hand, "Waiting for Spring." The book has received good reviews, and I can personally recommend the author.
Check it out!
Labels: books
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Liberal Fascism
Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism is a highly readable and well-researched book, and yet I can sum it up in two sentences:
1.) Progressives in all their political incarnations from the Jacobins to the Nazi's to the Fascists to Communists to Socialists to crusaders for the Social Gospel share a common ideological heritage and a murderous history.
2.) A little fascism is okay, as long as one agrees with the Glorious Leader's - or whatever social do-goodism suffices for a moral imperative - stated goals and it's for the right reasons.
Most any libertarian* not named Noam Chomsky could have saved you the trouble of reading Goldberg's book and told you the same thing. In the meantime, progressives of whatever ilk go about blithely increasing the power of government in the Pursuit of Heaven on Earth or some other enlightened vision of the perfectability of Man** and virtually no-one asks:
So what happens if the wrong Glorious Leader gets power?
It's not like Goldberg lacks for examples of totalitarianism run amok. Every abuse of liberty from the Reign of Terror to Buchenwald to the gulags and the unconstututional excesses of virtually every president - Republican or Democrat - since Wilson's abortive fascist experiment has followed in the Progressive goosestep. How he reaches the conclusion he does seems to me like a cognitive disconnect on his part.
All that said, I recommend Liberal Fascism. That Goldberg reaches a flawed conclusion doesn't mean I don't appreciate the service he has done in laying out an easily followed argument that modern American liberals - who are really anything but - and conservatives are really fruits of the same ideological tree. Scoop Jackson and Patrick Moynihan would have been perfectly at home in today's Republican Party. Unfortunately, libertarians aren't.
*that is a "classical liberal," or presumably a Randian. I really need to reread Ayn Rand. I suffered through The Fountainhead and a large chunk of Atlas Shrugged in high school - trust me, it wasn't part of the curriculum - but I wasn't ready for the ideas - probable - or maybe it was only because I was already radicalized to the left. Hey, this was 30-odd years ago; I thought Nixon was a righty. We grow too late smart and too soon old.
**In the collective, of course. Damned few people seem to be interested in perfecting themselves.
1.) Progressives in all their political incarnations from the Jacobins to the Nazi's to the Fascists to Communists to Socialists to crusaders for the Social Gospel share a common ideological heritage and a murderous history.
2.) A little fascism is okay, as long as one agrees with the Glorious Leader's - or whatever social do-goodism suffices for a moral imperative - stated goals and it's for the right reasons.
Most any libertarian* not named Noam Chomsky could have saved you the trouble of reading Goldberg's book and told you the same thing. In the meantime, progressives of whatever ilk go about blithely increasing the power of government in the Pursuit of Heaven on Earth or some other enlightened vision of the perfectability of Man** and virtually no-one asks:
So what happens if the wrong Glorious Leader gets power?
It's not like Goldberg lacks for examples of totalitarianism run amok. Every abuse of liberty from the Reign of Terror to Buchenwald to the gulags and the unconstututional excesses of virtually every president - Republican or Democrat - since Wilson's abortive fascist experiment has followed in the Progressive goosestep. How he reaches the conclusion he does seems to me like a cognitive disconnect on his part.
All that said, I recommend Liberal Fascism. That Goldberg reaches a flawed conclusion doesn't mean I don't appreciate the service he has done in laying out an easily followed argument that modern American liberals - who are really anything but - and conservatives are really fruits of the same ideological tree. Scoop Jackson and Patrick Moynihan would have been perfectly at home in today's Republican Party. Unfortunately, libertarians aren't.
*that is a "classical liberal," or presumably a Randian. I really need to reread Ayn Rand. I suffered through The Fountainhead and a large chunk of Atlas Shrugged in high school - trust me, it wasn't part of the curriculum - but I wasn't ready for the ideas - probable - or maybe it was only because I was already radicalized to the left. Hey, this was 30-odd years ago; I thought Nixon was a righty. We grow too late smart and too soon old.
**In the collective, of course. Damned few people seem to be interested in perfecting themselves.
Labels: blather, books, politics
Monday, February 04, 2008
The Irrational Atheist
****
One of the problems Christians have when confronted by atheists – assuming that the Christian is well-versed in his or her faith - is the instinctual appeal to the Bible in response. Appeals to scripture are fine in discussions between believers because even if they may disagree on interpretation they both agree that scripture is authoritative. Not so the non-Christian.
Atheists are rare; true atheists are rarer. Most of what passes for atheism in the US is merely snarky anti-Christian mutterings of perpetual adolescents rebelling against authority. Most of this type of atheist are, if irreligious, prone to a host of weird beliefs that make Christianity appear utterly reasonable in comparison.
Then there are those atheists who appeal to reason as the basis of their unbelief. Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins are three of this latter sort. They have each written best-selling books and promote the cause of unbelief wherever the opportunity presents itself – evangelical atheists, if you will. It is this “unholy trinity” that Vox Day addresses in his book, “The Irrational Atheist.”
I've always said Vox is the thinking man's Anne Coulter - a rapier wit with a taste for blood and a talent for wordplay. Only not as attractive. TIA is laugh-out-loud funny in spots – the footnotes are a hoot – but the book is a deadly serious takedown of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens dissecting their own arguments and using them against them. It does so without recourse to Scripture and Day succeeds brilliantly; the “unholy trinity” have a lot to answer for, and they should answer. I suspect they won’t.
Readers of Vox Day’s blog are going to be familiar with most of the arguments. I found the “God as game designer” analogy to be dubious, if diverting, but overall this is a good read and highly recommended for atheists and Christians alike - Christians, for ammunition to use in defending the faith and atheists, because it is good to reconsider what you think you know from time to time. Be prepared to reconsider what you thought you knew about the Inquisition, the Crusades, Adolf Hitler and a host of other subjects. If you are hoping for a definitive argument for God’s existence, you won’t find it here. What you will find is definitive proof of the existence of irrational atheists.
One of the problems Christians have when confronted by atheists – assuming that the Christian is well-versed in his or her faith - is the instinctual appeal to the Bible in response. Appeals to scripture are fine in discussions between believers because even if they may disagree on interpretation they both agree that scripture is authoritative. Not so the non-Christian.
Atheists are rare; true atheists are rarer. Most of what passes for atheism in the US is merely snarky anti-Christian mutterings of perpetual adolescents rebelling against authority. Most of this type of atheist are, if irreligious, prone to a host of weird beliefs that make Christianity appear utterly reasonable in comparison.
Then there are those atheists who appeal to reason as the basis of their unbelief. Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins are three of this latter sort. They have each written best-selling books and promote the cause of unbelief wherever the opportunity presents itself – evangelical atheists, if you will. It is this “unholy trinity” that Vox Day addresses in his book, “The Irrational Atheist.”
I've always said Vox is the thinking man's Anne Coulter - a rapier wit with a taste for blood and a talent for wordplay. Only not as attractive. TIA is laugh-out-loud funny in spots – the footnotes are a hoot – but the book is a deadly serious takedown of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens dissecting their own arguments and using them against them. It does so without recourse to Scripture and Day succeeds brilliantly; the “unholy trinity” have a lot to answer for, and they should answer. I suspect they won’t.
Readers of Vox Day’s blog are going to be familiar with most of the arguments. I found the “God as game designer” analogy to be dubious, if diverting, but overall this is a good read and highly recommended for atheists and Christians alike - Christians, for ammunition to use in defending the faith and atheists, because it is good to reconsider what you think you know from time to time. Be prepared to reconsider what you thought you knew about the Inquisition, the Crusades, Adolf Hitler and a host of other subjects. If you are hoping for a definitive argument for God’s existence, you won’t find it here. What you will find is definitive proof of the existence of irrational atheists.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Reading Material
Just arrived from Amazon - reading material for the next week or so!Reviews to follow! (amazon.com and Shelfari)
Labels: books
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