Asymmetric Books and Literature

I read these two in my class today. I'm kind of surprised that they let them in the English book actually. Maybe it goes with the "fighting oppression" theme of every other story. Compare the two works below to modern politicians' babbling foolishness.

American Crisis, by Thomas Paine:

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Interesting. We'll see if the secular dismissal of any view that holds sex to be more important or meaningful than the temporary release of pleasure-inducing chemicals produces a sort of backlash whereby people either discover the meaning that is already there (Christopher West) or imbue it with meaning themselves, the latter usually taking the form of a New Age philosophy.

Concerning New Age, I've been reading that Margaret Sanger, the eugenic evangelist, had some sort of pseudo-scientific theory of sex as the creator of genius (in people already born) through glands or whatever.

The report is below and an interview with Christopher West from CNA is below the fold.

The Love That Satisfies by Christopher West

Heaven's Song: Sexual Love as It Was Meant to Be by Christopher West

A Love Forever by Christopher West

Theology of the Body Explained: A Commentary on John Paul II's "Gospel of the Body" by Christopher West

Spiritual Melodies by Christopher West

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This is one subject that's turned the conservative corner. People are starting to wake up to the truth. Let's see which issue we can shed light on next.

Heaven And Earth: Global Warming - The Missing Science by Ian Plimer

Anti-nuclear zealots are foolish and will make us poorer.

Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Energy Will Lead the Green Revolution and End America's Energy Odyssey by William Tucker

Blacklisting Myself: Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in the Age of Terror by Roger L. Simon

People looking for Gulag Archipelago set in Hollywood, with real blacklists, ruined careers, brave principled stances, and other harrowing tales from a vibrant conservative underground will be disappointed by Blacklisting Myself.

In order to claim some kind of covert Hollywood blacklist, Simon would had to have pointed to a job that he lost after declaring that he voted for Bush or show that he was in-demand and on the "A-list" until he expressed ambivalence towards the Sandinista cause or something. In fact, the title is quite misleading in that Simon not only doesn't provide evidence for the thesis it impies but doesn't even make the claim. He admits that he wasn't exactly at the peak of his career when he became a conservative and has no idea whether his public conservatism hurt him in any way professionally (Simon does say that he lost some acquaintances and that his whiteness or, rather, his lack of blackness lost him a job with Richard Pryor) .

Or, shall I say, "public non-orthodox liberalism." Those expecting a Whitaker Chambers (Witness), David Horowitz (Radical Son), Michael Medved (Right Turns) lefty-turned-winger book will also be disappointed, for while Roger Simon was definitely a liberal, his politics never seems to have intruded on his quite normal life except for some youthful civil rights work- it was a latte liberalism, i.e., he'd have radical friends and brushes with lefty luminaries such as Abbie Hoffman and Warren Beatty, follow Timothy Leary on crack runs and New Agers to seances, but when the moment of true dedication arrived, Simon always pulled back.

And, although he voted for Bush, there's nothing "arch" about the contemporary Roger Simon's conservatism, for Simon is ideology-averse, a man equally repulsed by left and right excess, a conservative only because he's not a liberal.*

So, then we get how Simon power-brokered Hollywood deals, authored great art, and innovated Hollywood? Here, not so bad. Roger Simon received an Oscar nomination for Enemies, a Love Story and has screenwritten enough to make a good living. He created Moses Wine, a popular hippie detective, helped found a lunch group for writers that met in the Grove in Hollywood, and is somewhat of an internet pioneer with his Pajamas Media blog.

Is Blacklisting Myself a powerful intellectual achievement? No. Simon's insights are solid and difficult to disagree with: people who get things without earning them don't later appreciate them; some liberals are liberals to assuage guilt. His last chapter is a masterpiece of uncontroversial, moderate stoicism.

Salacious tell-all? Eh. Blacklisting Myself drops quite a few names, but Roger really only goes after people with whom he doesn't expect to work again. His brushes have a "One time I shook hands with..." quality to them as well, as if the people, except for Pryor perhaps, didn't consider him an equal. Simon barely misses a huge artistic achievement several times in the book: Simon almost writes the screenplay for Reds and Yentl.**

Special insights into the entertainment industry? I disagree with Simon that conservatives are inherently less creative. In this, Simon actually succumbs to a lack of imagination and historical perspective. He sees the liberal domination of Hollywood for the last forty years or so and can't fathom it any different (most people would consider sixties movies to be conservative). Conservatives have achieved great art over the centuries with a much more conservative outlook than anybody today except Rick Santorum. Think of Dante, Shakespeare, Bach, Cervantes, Flannery O'Connor, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, John Ford, Evelyn Waugh, Chesterton, Eliot, and the list can go on and on.

That is, unless Simon is equating conservatism with a bourgeois adherence to the status quo, in which case one can apply the term to anybody of any established belief system and Simon contradicts himself because he later says that “conservative is the new liberal” or that conservative ideas are the heretical, exciting ones; or a rigid religious dogma (although religious people have created more than their share) which again would contradict Simon's characterization of liberalism as a secular religion.

If Simon's just saying that it's hopeless to create an ideologically conservative movie, he's partially correct. It's much more romantic to have a protagonist open a homeless shelter with taxpayer money than to have him close one to save taxes. Something about the underdog, etc.

I’d reply that most of it has to do with how the issue is framed: Cutting government can help poor people and make for a stronger nation. Fighting an entrenched bureaucracy can be heroic and bureaucrats make excellent antagonists.

Or I can say that doctrinaire liberal movies are usually as rotten.

Simon attacks the Liberty Film Festival. I've attended two LFF events and enjoyed both of them. It’s only been around for a few years and may yet be a success if it doesn't claim to be "officially" conservative, as per my point above that ideological movies are rarely good.

Despite my criticisms, Blacklisting Myself is a good, interesting book, and I don't regret the afternoon I spent with it. It's eminently readable and quite interesting. Simon has a simple, un-dramatic writing style that neither taxes nor astonishes. Simon's lived an interesting life filled with travel, creative achievements, and some adversity.

Blacklisting Myself's greatest strength and the reason I'd recommend it to people is Simon's honesty. Simon could have fixed many of the potential disappointments above with some strategic exaggerations. Instead, Roger just tells us about his experiences and what he’s learned over that time. If it doesn’t exactly fit what you want it to be- if ideologues can’t quite wave it in front of their enemy’s faces- well, then that’s because you’re an inflexible ideologue who resents the world's complexity, isn’t it?

*I've never been impressed with people who're conservative because of one non-personal event like 9/11 and the O.J. Simpson trial, in Roger's case. One gets the feeling that Roger would chuck conservatism after seeing a 60 Minutes special on mean conservatives.

**As part of Pajamas Media, I had an opportunity to meet Roger Simon at the Blogworld convention in Las Vegas. I introduced myself. He shook my hand, but otherwise looked past me without expressing the slightest interest. I didn't take his indifference as a slight then and you needn't take it as a reflection of Mr. Simon's character now since that's the usual reaction when people meet me.

Roger Simon's movies and assorted items:

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I'm not a scientist, but Horner seems to present a strong case against global warming (now, "climate change") hyteria in this interview. It's fascinating and a must-listen for anybody interested in getting the skeptic's side. Email to your conformist friends.

Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed by Christopher C. Horner

Then, there's this on CNN.

Gwyneth Cravens argues that nuclear power is very safe, in this interview with Dennis Prager. It's on Asymmetric to settle an argument with my liberal friends. Very relevant as we prepare to waste billions of dollars on other stuff.

I plan on reading it.

Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy (Vintage) by Gwyneth Cravens

Calm down there, Mr. Evans (author of Jimmy Carter: The Liberal Left and World Chaos: A Carter/Obama Plan That Will Not Work) Of course, it's hard to speak of Jimmy Carter with a sense of detachment.

It's a fascinating forty minutes that I need to post because of a disagreement with some of my liberal friends (Glad you could make it, guys.).

Jimmy Carter: The Liberal Left and World Chaos: A Carter/Obama Plan That Will Not Work by Mike Evans

For those seeking a moderate contra-opinion on Barack Obama, The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate is a good choice. I haven't read The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality by Jerome Corsi, but my understanding is that it feeds a certain hatefulness absent in my personality.

It's a brisk read and focuses exclusively on Obama's career as an elected official which began in 1996 when Obama was able to disqualify all of his opponents for the state senate on technical grounds:

Mr. Obama writes that even if the voters were not impressed by this speech, "enough of them appreciated my earnestness and youthful swagger that I made it to the Illinois legislature."

In real life, it did not matter what Mr. Obama said on the stump or whether South Side voters were impressed. What mattered was that, beginning on Jan. 2, 1996, his campaigners began challenging thousands of petition signatures the other candidates in the race had submitted in order to appear on the ballot. Thus would Mr. Obama win his state Senate seat, months before a single vote was cast.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Mr. Obama's petition challengers reported to him nightly on their progress as they disqualified his opponents' signatures on various technical grounds -- all legitimate from the perspective of law. One local newspaper, Chicago Weekend, reported that "[s]ome of the problems include printing registered voters name [sic] instead of writing, a female voter got married after she registered to vote and signed her maiden name, registered voters signed the petitions but don't live in the 13th district."

One of the candidates would speculate that his signature-gatherers, working at a per-signature pay rate, may have cheated him by signing many of the petitions themselves, making them easy to disqualify.

In the end, Mr. Obama disqualified all four opponents -- including the incumbent state senator, Alice Palmer, and three minor candidates. Ms. Palmer, a former ally of Mr. Obama, had gathered 1,580 signatures, more than twice the 757 required to appear on the ballot. A minor, perennial candidate had gathered 1,899 signatures, suggesting the Obama team invested much time working even against him.

It goes on to document his support for the Chicago machine status quo and against reformers, both liberal and conservative; his nefarious associations with William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright; and his inauspicious senate "career." This is the most valuable part of the book, astonishing the reader with Obama's complete lack of accomplishment balanced only by his extraordinary mendacity.

Even the events Obama highlights as "experience" "makes the case" against him such as his double cross of John McCain, when Obama promised to support John McCain's campaign finance reform only to switch towards his party's status quo at the last minute.

In fact, if there's a thesis to Freddoso's book it's that Obama not only isn't a reformer, but the exact opposite: a politician who never says "no" to liberal special interest groups like teachers' unions and is a solid vote for liberal conformity (Obama is famously the "most liberal senator" according to National Journal.).

The media's obsession with Obama is less interesting. We've heard the "thilla' in my legga'" quote from Chris Matthews a million times.

The book is very current. I'd say following developments up until June of this year.

The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate by David Freddoso

The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality by Jerome R. Corsi

I'm listening to Elizabeth Royte on Dennis Prager and she's making a lot of sense: Bottled water is a sham; it's actually worse for you than tap water for its lack of fluoride, costs money, and is bad for the environment.

Think about, as Ms. Royte suggests, all of the landfill space; petroleum- used in the making of the bottles (Plastic is made from oil, folks.), transporting it around the country, and picking it up from the supermarket; and money (11.5 billion a year) wasted on a completely useless product.

I will henceforth be a tap water evangelist. I'll start with my friend, Jason, whom I visited yesterday and depleted his huge water stash by two bottles. My wife, on the other hand, may not make the switch, as she brings a stubborn tap water prejudice with her from Mexico.

Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte

Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash by Elizabeth Royte