Posted on 03/04/2004 10:29:15 AM PST by Jack Black
Molon Labe is a Greek phrase that dates back to the battle of Thermopylae. A small contingent of 300 Greek soldiers faced off a huge Iranian army of a half million men. The Iranians told the Greeks "we don't want to kill you, send out your arms and we will let you live" to which the Greeks responded "come and get them" (Molon Labe).
The Greeks were slaughtered to a man but did hold the Iranians back long enough to allow reinforcements to arrive, and Greece herself was saved from invasion.
Before reading the book, based on the title, I was expecting a military thriller about armed insurgents fighting off a vicious PC military commanded by Hillary Clinton. Indeed several books of this type have been published in the last few years. But Boston surprises, the book is really a hybrid. It falls somewhere between a traditional novel and and a how-to guide.
The novel is the story of a small group of freedom advocates who tire of the creeping socialism of the United States. It is set in the very near future, ending in 2012.
In this case the how-to is how to take over the state of Wyoming via the political process and what to do with this power once achieved. Thus it is more of a political thriller than a military one.
The story is an interesting one and I found the book an enjoyable read. However readers looking for a conventional novel might feel disappointed. Characterization is thin, only fleshed out enough to drive the central points of the book home.
So, it's not a huge simmering action novel with lots of battle scenes, it's not a deeply engaging romantic novel that draws you into its characters lives. Why read it?
As a hard hitting polemic and how-to guide it succeeds. This is rare form of book, some of Ayn Rands work came to mind, such as Anthem. The book is a treatise on the reasons for political succession and a lot of ideas about how to achieve it. Many of the ideas are obviously fanciful, such as the laws that the free state of Wyoming pass to eliminate sales tax for citizens carrying arms. But these add a fun touch of whimsy to a book that might otherwise become pedantic.
Boston is a self published author, and apparently a pretty successful one, based on the number of books he has in print. He has previously written a number of liberty oriented books on subjects ranging from the origins of the Constitution to the well respected "Boston's Gun Bible", now in its second edition.
The freedom of self-publishing has allowed him to create an idiosyncratic writing style. Molon Labe is packed with quotes on liberty from sources both new and old. There are long speeches given by characters that lay out their motivations and plans. There are appendices with even more details on how to free Wyoming. Underlines, italics and bold text and other quirky formatting abound. Apparently Boston's dedication to liberty includes freedom from the staid conventions of layout and typesetting.
So, should you read the book? Yes, if you are a devotee of the current crop of writers writing on liberty. BTP has created an engaging book with more ideas per page than the binding can contain. Readers who enjoyed other self published books in this vein, such as Unintended Consequences, will likely be able to overlook the rough edges and be carried along by the story, ideas and abundance of anecdotal asides.
Finally anyone involved in, or curious about, the real life attempts to create a liberty oriented state such as that undertaken by the Free State Project or the Western Liberty Alliance should definitely pick up this book.
Readers looking for a conventional military thriller or novel might better look elsewhere. But the shelves at the airport are full of such cookie cutter fare, much of it ghost written for Tom Clancey. You won't remember much about those books when you put them down, but Molon Labe is sure to have you looking at things in a new light after reading it. For this it must ultimately be considered a success and a worthwhile read.
The Second Amendment...
America's Original Homeland Security!
We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!
No Jack, that's the flag flown by the Gonzales Colony in Tejas when the Mexican army came to confiscate the little cannon the settlers used- probably with canister shot- to repel marauding Indian raids. And, as it worked out, Mexican federal governmental gun confiscators.
The fight over the cannon at Gonzales was the beginning of the Texan War for Independence, resulted in the following battles at Goliad, the Alamo, and eventually, the Texas victory at the Battle of San Jacinto.
Send cash and you can get an Autographed Copy by BTP.
Hint: the $575 Winchesters are fought over by collectors and WWII reenactors, while the $400 Danish Issue/Returns were in many cases recently rebuilt, often with new barrels, some made by Beretta and very near match grade according to the air gauging machine at the NWSC Crane match rifle shop.
Another very good deal: a $200 Danish return barrelled receiver and an M1 Garand parts set. And for $50 more, you can have one that's been freshly Parkerized.
But why not a woodless Dane return? A $75 new stock from Boyd's and $50 for the metal and you are in business.
Not a thing wrong with that route. Funny, though that noone's reproduced the fiberglass buttstock of the M14 in an M1 Garand edition. I suppose the collectors would be outraged, but you'd thing Choate or one of the other synthetic stock manufacturers would be all over it. Maybe there's some hangup I haven't considered. The matching foreend and handguards, perhaps? But the Boyd stocks are indeed very nice; a shooting buddy of mine has one, and just for fun, we swapped stocks for one recent range session. No improvements, either way, and no problems. Just a good old day of Garand shooting.
Concur, though I really prefer to avoid the H&R Garands. The best one I've ever had was a Springfield rework, with a Korean-era International Harvester as a close second. And a six-digit early WWII Springfield a close third.
I'd really, really like to have a tuned-up example of one of the recent manufacture Lithgow Garand receivers from Australia. They're not quite as they should be, but close.
-archy-/-
I love my Mosin-Nagant
I did the same thing with my #4 Lee Enfield, having driven to compete at the military rifle shoot at Knob Creek with my #4 Enfield and having left the magazines behind. I quickly hit the tables in the pole barn, looking for one I could get bt with and a couple of strippers with which to keep it fed, but no soap.
I hear that Garand clips in stainless will soon be forthcoming....
Now if we could just get some of the curved Finnish Nagant strippers, made for use with a scope mounted....
I've mostly been shooting in 200-yard reduced-range Garand shoots for the last decade, and let the two Garands I've taken to Perry get away from me, one tuned by Crane armorer Glenn Nelson and the other a Ron Smith gun from my wide-open-spaces Arizona days. Both went to young shooters really building their own capabilities, one a competitive National Guard shooter on his state's *Governor's 20* team, who's now decided that maybe his match M16A2 isn't the only way to go.
I'll get along okay with my Arkansas/Marine match Garand and its original walnut okay, I expect. But if I was around Florida or the Texas Gulf I might feel otherwise.
I think the original was made by the citizens of Gonzales using a bed sheet - hence the white background. From what I have read of the confrontation, I doubt the Mexican troops mistook it for a surrender flag...
;>)
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