Curtis Dahlgren
The Top Ten Books We Can't Buy (and more crazy headlines)
By Curtis Dahlgren
". . you may decide that I've been right about what I've been saying in this column for the last six years. And why I often feel like an alien in a strange land speaking a language no one understands." — Mike Adams (on being a professor in N. Carolina)
I AM writing another column today because the weather's too wintry for going outdoors. It has been exactly one month since the first day of "spring," and it's been snowing all morning in the U.P. of Michigan (and I live about as far south as one can live and still try to claim being a Yooper). Winter started in late October, so we've had exactly six months of winter. How many months of winter do you WANT us to have, Mr. Gore, sir? Even the natives are getting restless.
As quoted in this column a long time ago, someone once said that "liberals are blown away by experts" (and Alfred Egore is an "expert"). That's why when he was nominated for the Nobel prize, he simply HAD to win it. Liberals are blown away by Nobel laureates; may the opinions of real scientists be "damned."
But Americans outside of the Ivy League aren't so "impressed." According to Rasmussen, less than than one-third of we the People believe that global warming/"climate change" is man-made! However, 48 percent of the political class still believes in man-made global warming. What does that tell you? It tells us that most politicians believe every word in the New York Times and Washington Post (and too many "professors" never even look out the windows of their libraries, let alone go out of doors). Which brings us to some of the crazy headlines of the last couple of weeks:
- "Georgetown snowbound" [Colorado that is; National Guard sent to the rescue of I-70]
- "Dow Jones down more than 200 points" [after President all but kisses Hugo Chavez]
- "EPA edict deems carbon dioxide a pollutant" [they're going to hold their breath until every American "agrees" with them — or surrenders to the Federalis]
- "Mainstream media confused re TEA parties" [CNN calls them "tea-bagging"]
- "MSM promotes Chavez' favorite book to #2 on Amazon.com [#2 is a good word for it]
- "Crude oil drops to less than $47 a barrel" [proving that the free market still works]
- "Dept. of Homeland Security says watch out for right-wing extremists" [such as pro-lifers, but never mind the border with Mexico]
- "President's Cabinet to 'cut' 100 million in spending" [that's barely a tenth of one billion — while Uncle Sam spends 3 1/2 trillion (3,500 times the measly 100 mill they supposedly plan to "cut")]
- "Significant snowfall predicted for Wisconsin on April 21st" [snow in the mountains of Colorado is understandable, but where I live in the U.P. the altitude is about 700 feet and I can see fresh snow on the ground right now]
SPEAKING OF BOOKS, I've spent good money on them in my 66 years, but right now I can't buy them anymore — thanks to the "energy policies" of the paranoid environmentalists that have raised the price of "energy" and grain and other foods, due to transportation costs — and that doesn't even take into account public union benefits and the costs of everything else (on account of liberals blocking tort reform in "solidarity" with trial lawyers).
WHO IS ACCUSING WHOM OF NOT BEING FOR THE "LITTLE PEOPLE"? And we're supposed to be "blown away" by alleged "cuts" in federal spending amounting to about one-three thousand five hundredth of the federal budget? As Tiny Tim would say, "God help us, every one."
Anyway, there are plenty of good books still being published out there that would "blow away" Hugo 'Big Oil' Chavez' favorite books, and here are ten of them:
- "In the Words of Our Enemies" by Jed Babbin ["Years before 9/11, our enemy warned us — but we weren't listening; are we still making the same mistake?"]
- "Three New Deals" ["Mussolini's fascism, Hitler's Nazism, and FDR's New Deal shared elements in theory, and explain the popularity of Europe's totalitarian systems]
- "Cool It" ["is the hysteria surrounding Al Gore's 'planetary emergency' rational?"]
- "Blue Planet in Green Shackles: What Is Endangered — Climate Or Freedom?" by Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic ["How environmentalism has replaced Communism as the biggest threat to human rights and prosperity"]
- "Obamaland: I've Seen Your Future and It Doesn't Work" by James Delingpole ["None dare call it Socialism, but they'll call it 'social democracy,' 'fairness,' and 'spreading the wealth around'"]
- "One-Party Classroom" by David Horowitz and Jacob Laksin ["Reveals how political indoctrination in American colleges and universities is even more dangerous than harsh critics have imagined"]
- "Indoctrination U" by David Horowitz ["American college professors routinely portray the U.S. as racist and imperialistic, while dispensing propaganda that passes for 'education'"]
- "Liberal Fascism" by Jonah Goldberg ["Reveals striking similarities between Hitler and Mussolini policies and those of the American Left such as, campus 'speech codes' and gun control, and euthanasia"]
- "The Politically Incorrect Guide [TM] to the Great Depression and the New Deal" by an economist, Robert Murphy ["How government efforts — first under Hoover and then under FDR — to prop up wages despite falling prices led to a decade of double-digit unemployment and less-than-zero investment, etc."]
- "The Ultimate Man's Survival Guide; Recovering the Lost Art of Manhood" by Frank Miniter ["Why today's societal legalism is a poor substitute for a masculine code of honor; the little known catch-22 that is one reason today's men have given up trying to figure out what women want, etc."]
- "There Is a God" by Anthony Flew [formerly the world's most esteemed "expert" on the reasons for atheism; he certainly won't win a Nobel prize for literature for this one]
- "Joe The Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream" by Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher ["I believe we are at a crossroads that will likely determine the fate of our nation. Ask any historian, and he or she will tell you that every superpower from the beginning of time was not destroyed by a threat from afar, but by its own hand from within . . . [In the end] it will come down to Values, and who is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to defend them."]
- "Massey-Harris 101: A Letter to Generations X, Y, and Z; Quotations for the Ages" by Curtis Dahlgren
SORRY. I promised you "ten" books, but I broke my promise like Uncle Sam's politicians, and that makes thirteen, besides the other books I've recommended in previous columns.
CONCLUSION: THE ROLE OF "TRUST" IN THE FATE OF CIVILIZATION
Absolutely every aspect of life — from marriage to the economy — is ultimately dependent upon that little word TRUST. Radical feminism destroyed trust between the sexes — and the role of the husband in the nuclear family — and the plummeting Dow-Jones Index in the last 2 or 3 months is mirroring the lack of trust by investors from 1929 to 1937 or so (think the bailout/nationalization of the credit and auto industries, etc.)!
To add insult upon insult to injury, the "mainstream" media are working overtime (despite the threat of bankruptcy) to destroy trust in God. On the anniversary of its "God is Dead" cover, Newsweek magazine predicted the "dying" of Christianity (the old USSR tried to bring that about for 70 years and failed, but "hope" springs eternal, I guess).
On the day after Easter, USA TODAY's "Monday focus" ran a story about "Fightin' words" ["Is the Bible the literal word of God, or a historical compilation written by different people in different situations over a period of years? This question has provoked some soul-searching about the very foundation upon which the Christian faith is based."].
No surprise there (that liberals are uncertain — the only thing they are certain about that it is sign of a lack of humility if someone is too "certain" about anything). But they also have their "favorite dogmatic certitudes." According to the USA TODAY article:
"Defenders of the conservative faith have their hands full this spring . . .well-known liberal theologians Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan have teamed up for a new book that could shake up popular understanding of the revered apostle who essentially founded the Christian church as we know it.
"In The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon, Borg and Crossan point out [as if they're certain] that Paul didn't really write the more conservative teachings attributed to him . . . [They] paint a portrait of Paul as a promoter of a radical egalitarian vision for a new world in which economic justice and non-violence finally prevail." [New World Order, here we come, with the blessings of Liberal "christians"!]
In the same issue of USA TODAY (4?13/09) under "Letters," is a bold headline that says [with certitude] "Passing gay marriage laws big step toward decency"[!]
Sub-headlines say, "It's about equal rights" and "Gay marriage inevitable"[!]
An Australian defends "Christian traditions, along with common sense" that are "being downtrodden by those failing to preserve the wisdom of the ages" ["when, throughout history, have there been great celebrations of same-sex unions in either primitive or advanced civilizations?"], but his letter was out-numbered 3-to-1. We can expect a lot more of the "sophisticated" mainstream mantra in the media this year, because "gay rights" are the issue-du-jour of the publications that our politicians read almost exclusively.
"Gay marriage" is the 2009 version of the 1960s "Famine 1975" and the 70s "Coming Ice Age" and the 80s "Economic Malaise" and the 90s "Ozone Hole" and the oughts' "Global Warming" (which is rapidly losing its public-relations appeal). The Left has to keep coming up with SOMETHING to use to advance its age-old Socialist agendas. We can count on it!
P.S.
Another letter in the 4/13 USA TODAY was headlined "Retry former Alaska senator." The letter from Iowa says that "no one disputes that Stevens accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of home renovations and gifts from a supporter who had a slew of business interests that Stevens was in a position to affect. That is corruption."
DUMB-QUESTION-OF-THE-WEEK: Now that Uncle Sam is taking over literal ownership of banks and automobile manufacturers (and by precedent, potentially the whole private sector), is there any aspect of American "business" that the White House doesn't have the power to "affect"?
DUMB QUESTION # 2: If the White House continues to accept "gifts" and MILLIONS of dollars worth of campaign contributions, isn't that "corruption"? If Uncle Sam ends up in direct control of everything from the kind of car you can buy to your medical "care," by the same logic as the Justice Department used against Senator Stevens, would it not be the same kind of corruption if someone gives a "gift" to a President's campaign for reelection?
NO WONDER HUGO CHAVEZ AND THE PREZ GAVE EACH OTHER SUCH A WARM "HANDSHAKE"! WHAT ARE THESE MEN LAUGHING ABOUT, EH?
© Curtis Dahlgren
April 20, 2009
". . you may decide that I've been right about what I've been saying in this column for the last six years. And why I often feel like an alien in a strange land speaking a language no one understands." — Mike Adams (on being a professor in N. Carolina)
I AM writing another column today because the weather's too wintry for going outdoors. It has been exactly one month since the first day of "spring," and it's been snowing all morning in the U.P. of Michigan (and I live about as far south as one can live and still try to claim being a Yooper). Winter started in late October, so we've had exactly six months of winter. How many months of winter do you WANT us to have, Mr. Gore, sir? Even the natives are getting restless.
As quoted in this column a long time ago, someone once said that "liberals are blown away by experts" (and Alfred Egore is an "expert"). That's why when he was nominated for the Nobel prize, he simply HAD to win it. Liberals are blown away by Nobel laureates; may the opinions of real scientists be "damned."
But Americans outside of the Ivy League aren't so "impressed." According to Rasmussen, less than than one-third of we the People believe that global warming/"climate change" is man-made! However, 48 percent of the political class still believes in man-made global warming. What does that tell you? It tells us that most politicians believe every word in the New York Times and Washington Post (and too many "professors" never even look out the windows of their libraries, let alone go out of doors). Which brings us to some of the crazy headlines of the last couple of weeks:
- "Georgetown snowbound" [Colorado that is; National Guard sent to the rescue of I-70]
- "Dow Jones down more than 200 points" [after President all but kisses Hugo Chavez]
- "EPA edict deems carbon dioxide a pollutant" [they're going to hold their breath until every American "agrees" with them — or surrenders to the Federalis]
- "Mainstream media confused re TEA parties" [CNN calls them "tea-bagging"]
- "MSM promotes Chavez' favorite book to #2 on Amazon.com [#2 is a good word for it]
- "Crude oil drops to less than $47 a barrel" [proving that the free market still works]
- "Dept. of Homeland Security says watch out for right-wing extremists" [such as pro-lifers, but never mind the border with Mexico]
- "President's Cabinet to 'cut' 100 million in spending" [that's barely a tenth of one billion — while Uncle Sam spends 3 1/2 trillion (3,500 times the measly 100 mill they supposedly plan to "cut")]
- "Significant snowfall predicted for Wisconsin on April 21st" [snow in the mountains of Colorado is understandable, but where I live in the U.P. the altitude is about 700 feet and I can see fresh snow on the ground right now]
SPEAKING OF BOOKS, I've spent good money on them in my 66 years, but right now I can't buy them anymore — thanks to the "energy policies" of the paranoid environmentalists that have raised the price of "energy" and grain and other foods, due to transportation costs — and that doesn't even take into account public union benefits and the costs of everything else (on account of liberals blocking tort reform in "solidarity" with trial lawyers).
WHO IS ACCUSING WHOM OF NOT BEING FOR THE "LITTLE PEOPLE"? And we're supposed to be "blown away" by alleged "cuts" in federal spending amounting to about one-three thousand five hundredth of the federal budget? As Tiny Tim would say, "God help us, every one."
Anyway, there are plenty of good books still being published out there that would "blow away" Hugo 'Big Oil' Chavez' favorite books, and here are ten of them:
- "In the Words of Our Enemies" by Jed Babbin ["Years before 9/11, our enemy warned us — but we weren't listening; are we still making the same mistake?"]
- "Three New Deals" ["Mussolini's fascism, Hitler's Nazism, and FDR's New Deal shared elements in theory, and explain the popularity of Europe's totalitarian systems]
- "Cool It" ["is the hysteria surrounding Al Gore's 'planetary emergency' rational?"]
- "Blue Planet in Green Shackles: What Is Endangered — Climate Or Freedom?" by Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic ["How environmentalism has replaced Communism as the biggest threat to human rights and prosperity"]
- "Obamaland: I've Seen Your Future and It Doesn't Work" by James Delingpole ["None dare call it Socialism, but they'll call it 'social democracy,' 'fairness,' and 'spreading the wealth around'"]
- "One-Party Classroom" by David Horowitz and Jacob Laksin ["Reveals how political indoctrination in American colleges and universities is even more dangerous than harsh critics have imagined"]
- "Indoctrination U" by David Horowitz ["American college professors routinely portray the U.S. as racist and imperialistic, while dispensing propaganda that passes for 'education'"]
- "Liberal Fascism" by Jonah Goldberg ["Reveals striking similarities between Hitler and Mussolini policies and those of the American Left such as, campus 'speech codes' and gun control, and euthanasia"]
- "The Politically Incorrect Guide [TM] to the Great Depression and the New Deal" by an economist, Robert Murphy ["How government efforts — first under Hoover and then under FDR — to prop up wages despite falling prices led to a decade of double-digit unemployment and less-than-zero investment, etc."]
- "The Ultimate Man's Survival Guide; Recovering the Lost Art of Manhood" by Frank Miniter ["Why today's societal legalism is a poor substitute for a masculine code of honor; the little known catch-22 that is one reason today's men have given up trying to figure out what women want, etc."]
- "There Is a God" by Anthony Flew [formerly the world's most esteemed "expert" on the reasons for atheism; he certainly won't win a Nobel prize for literature for this one]
- "Joe The Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream" by Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher ["I believe we are at a crossroads that will likely determine the fate of our nation. Ask any historian, and he or she will tell you that every superpower from the beginning of time was not destroyed by a threat from afar, but by its own hand from within . . . [In the end] it will come down to Values, and who is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to defend them."]
- "Massey-Harris 101: A Letter to Generations X, Y, and Z; Quotations for the Ages" by Curtis Dahlgren
SORRY. I promised you "ten" books, but I broke my promise like Uncle Sam's politicians, and that makes thirteen, besides the other books I've recommended in previous columns.
CONCLUSION: THE ROLE OF "TRUST" IN THE FATE OF CIVILIZATION
Absolutely every aspect of life — from marriage to the economy — is ultimately dependent upon that little word TRUST. Radical feminism destroyed trust between the sexes — and the role of the husband in the nuclear family — and the plummeting Dow-Jones Index in the last 2 or 3 months is mirroring the lack of trust by investors from 1929 to 1937 or so (think the bailout/nationalization of the credit and auto industries, etc.)!
To add insult upon insult to injury, the "mainstream" media are working overtime (despite the threat of bankruptcy) to destroy trust in God. On the anniversary of its "God is Dead" cover, Newsweek magazine predicted the "dying" of Christianity (the old USSR tried to bring that about for 70 years and failed, but "hope" springs eternal, I guess).
On the day after Easter, USA TODAY's "Monday focus" ran a story about "Fightin' words" ["Is the Bible the literal word of God, or a historical compilation written by different people in different situations over a period of years? This question has provoked some soul-searching about the very foundation upon which the Christian faith is based."].
No surprise there (that liberals are uncertain — the only thing they are certain about that it is sign of a lack of humility if someone is too "certain" about anything). But they also have their "favorite dogmatic certitudes." According to the USA TODAY article:
"Defenders of the conservative faith have their hands full this spring . . .well-known liberal theologians Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan have teamed up for a new book that could shake up popular understanding of the revered apostle who essentially founded the Christian church as we know it.
"In The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon, Borg and Crossan point out [as if they're certain] that Paul didn't really write the more conservative teachings attributed to him . . . [They] paint a portrait of Paul as a promoter of a radical egalitarian vision for a new world in which economic justice and non-violence finally prevail." [New World Order, here we come, with the blessings of Liberal "christians"!]
In the same issue of USA TODAY (4?13/09) under "Letters," is a bold headline that says [with certitude] "Passing gay marriage laws big step toward decency"[!]
Sub-headlines say, "It's about equal rights" and "Gay marriage inevitable"[!]
An Australian defends "Christian traditions, along with common sense" that are "being downtrodden by those failing to preserve the wisdom of the ages" ["when, throughout history, have there been great celebrations of same-sex unions in either primitive or advanced civilizations?"], but his letter was out-numbered 3-to-1. We can expect a lot more of the "sophisticated" mainstream mantra in the media this year, because "gay rights" are the issue-du-jour of the publications that our politicians read almost exclusively.
"Gay marriage" is the 2009 version of the 1960s "Famine 1975" and the 70s "Coming Ice Age" and the 80s "Economic Malaise" and the 90s "Ozone Hole" and the oughts' "Global Warming" (which is rapidly losing its public-relations appeal). The Left has to keep coming up with SOMETHING to use to advance its age-old Socialist agendas. We can count on it!
P.S.
Another letter in the 4/13 USA TODAY was headlined "Retry former Alaska senator." The letter from Iowa says that "no one disputes that Stevens accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of home renovations and gifts from a supporter who had a slew of business interests that Stevens was in a position to affect. That is corruption."
DUMB-QUESTION-OF-THE-WEEK: Now that Uncle Sam is taking over literal ownership of banks and automobile manufacturers (and by precedent, potentially the whole private sector), is there any aspect of American "business" that the White House doesn't have the power to "affect"?
DUMB QUESTION # 2: If the White House continues to accept "gifts" and MILLIONS of dollars worth of campaign contributions, isn't that "corruption"? If Uncle Sam ends up in direct control of everything from the kind of car you can buy to your medical "care," by the same logic as the Justice Department used against Senator Stevens, would it not be the same kind of corruption if someone gives a "gift" to a President's campaign for reelection?
NO WONDER HUGO CHAVEZ AND THE PREZ GAVE EACH OTHER SUCH A WARM "HANDSHAKE"! WHAT ARE THESE MEN LAUGHING ABOUT, EH?
© Curtis Dahlgren
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