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Summer reading: Sorry, no elves or unicorns Of course, in a careful minuet, Mr. Gore thus carved out a victim
disarmament position slightly more "moderate" than that of his Democratic
rival, former New Jersey Sen. and NBA Power Forward Bill Bradley, who
surely remembers how to execute the old picket fence.
Mr. Bradley calls for the federal registration of every single firearm,
historically the last step before confiscation. Presto: Gore the
"Moderate."
Regular readers will not be distracted by the fancy ball-handling. This
has nothing to do with "reducing crime" -- crime rates are now falling
everywhere, except among police officers, who are now getting dismissed at
record rates for torturing and murdering innocent "civilians." (But we
wouldn't want to disarm them, surely?)
Rather, the goal here is to divide America into two classes. One class
will be our rulers and their armed minions, who will dress in battle gear
and carry assault rifles and instruct us in our new duties while being
"protected by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they
should commit on the Inhabitants of these States."
The second class will be the rest of us -- the tax-paying, disarmed serfs.
It was in this context that I sat down to come up with this year's
"Summer Reading List," where regular readers will know better than to
expect any escapist romps soon to star Harrison Ford in a multiplex near
you. (What is with this "Tom Clancy" guy, anyway? Is that actually an
individual, or some sort of collective brand name, like "Pillsbury," or
"Smith & Wesson"?)
If you haven't read it in 35 years, the most important book you can pick
up this summer, as we contemplate an America where the armed government
goons will soon gather unrestricted power to have their way with us, is
Leon Uris' classic novel of the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto, "Mila 18."
What abuses, indignities, and outright tortures will a peaceful people
endure before they finally take up arms in a desperate struggle against
tyranny? (One would be tempted to call it "a hopeless struggle," though in
fact the ability of a handful of untrained civilians to hold off battle
hardened units of the Wehrmacht for two months in the Warsaw ghetto in 1943
stunned the world, and was in large measure responsible for the fact that
an armed and free state of Israel was even judged feasible.)
The Bantam paperback edition of "Mila 18" is readily available.
Not so easy to find, yet, is the thinner new novel "The Mitzvah," by
Aaron Zelman of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership ("Lethal
Laws"), and by veteran novelist and Second Amendment advocate L. Neil Smith
("Pallas," "The Probability Broach.") "The Mitzvah" recounts the tale of
middle-aged Chicago Catholic priest John Greenwood, who discovers he is
actually a Jewish Holocaust orphan, a revelation that forces him to rethink
many of his "received" opinions, including the notion that the best
solution to an increasingly violent urban America is further victim
disarmament.
Mind you, in competition for a permanent place in the literary pantheon,
"Mila 18" is the heavyweight. But if you're looking for an outreach tool
for folks who might find a modest 243 pages more easily digestible, "The
Mitzvah" is $10.95 postpaid from JPFO, P.O. Box 270143, Hartford, Wisc.
53027.
On the non-fiction front, we would be remiss not to mention that the work
of Jim Bovard ("The Fair Trade Fraud") keeps getting better. In his latest
hardcover, "Freedom in Chains" ($26.95, St. Martin's Press), Jim seems
almost ready to join the radicals, declaring:
"The achievements of government will be forever limited by the primary
tool of government -- coercion. ... The people are irrevocably labeled as
'free' until the government completely wrecks the economy or slaughters a
statistically significant percentage of the population. People have
worshipped government too long. ... At this point, marginal reforms should
suffice only for those who believe citizens deserve marginal lives -- lives
consisting of what politicians choose not to confiscate and bureaucrats
deign not to prohibit. To be overgoverned means lives thwarted, hopes
dashed, creativity suppressed, potential squandered, character subverted,
and dignity destroyed."
By George, I think he's got it.
Finally, in the video aisle, producer Mike McNulty (the Academy
Award-nominated documentary "Waco: The Rules of Engagement") reports
September is now the target date for release of his sequel, "Waco: A New
Revelation," which promises further documentation of the purposeful use of
government snipers to keep women and children trapped in the burning
building on the day of the Branch Davidians' final incineration, while
federal agents blocked access to fire engines. (A federal judge in Texas
ruled this month those very charges have sufficient credibility to go
forward at trial, with sniper Lon Horiuchi -- the killer of Vicky Weaver --
as a named defendant.)
It is an honor to host this man's work, and we
encourage you to visit his site and read his book. To read other articles by Vin on this site, click here. You can also see his full archives at these two sites: |
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