Posted on 03/30/2009 6:15:34 PM PDT by pissant
Last Sunday's New York Times reported that “Mr. Obama will confront resentment over American-style capitalism and resistance to his economic prescriptions when he lands in London. ... [H]e will be tested in face-to-face meetings by the leaders of China and Russia, who have been pondering the degree to which the power of the United States to dominate global affairs may be ebbing. ... The American banking collapse, which precipitated the global meltdown, has led to a fundamental rethinking of the American way as a model for the rest of the world.”
This may seem an odd beginning to a review of Mark Levin's spectacularly well-timed and vital new book, “Liberty and Tyranny.” But it catches perfectly the always present instinct to strive to crush liberty by those who have neither the courage nor the capacity to exercise it. The dignity of free men and women is a constant moral reproach to those who chose or are compelled not to live in such dignity. Each time a free people suffer some temporary material reversal - such as 1929 or now - the enemies of individual freedom and liberty offer up some substitute for it that goes by many names but ultimately devolves toward tyranny.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
So far, the book is brilliant.
“None of the MSM outlets has bothered to mention the book yet.”
That is incredible.
However, I’ve been grateful that the leftist bastids who practice character assasination HAVEN’T make Mark a household name.
Levin rocks, and I am very proud of my signed copy of L&T.
I havent finished reading it yet, but what I’ve read has been excellent.
Reading it now...
It has a lot of historical, literary and Constitutional references...not a book to blow through, although it is interesting.
I cannot see how a Liberal could get excited by de Toqueville, Paine, Jefferson or Adam Smith references.
It SKEWERS the Leftists (he uses “Statist”) in basically a literal and figurative juxtaposition that the Left defiles and works against what the Fouding Fathers imagined.
So far, great information.
BUMP
Agree, I got a short way in before my copy walked off ... It seemed like a great reference of history. If you don’t know where you came from, you don’t know where you are headed type of book.
This is the kind of book you buy and keep for reference. I am on the part now about Medicare and Medicaid.
Levin rocks. I would invite him into my fighting position anytime.
His explanation of the consequences of the banning of DDT is superb. I live in Massachusetts, and in Cambridge I have had the experience of walking by a building with a bunch of feminists painted on the side. The quote below says: “Indication of harm, not proof of harm is our call to action.”
For years, I have walked by it and thought of the millions of people worldwide who have suffered and died because of the bogus banning of DDT.
It makes me angry to think of it. All those people suffering and dying because of stupid liberal ideology.
I ordered a Kindle 2 reader from Amazon last week, and it arrived today. Mark Levin's new book was the first thing I downloaded to it.
I’ve always “inherited” my books from family. I bought this one. I can’t wait for it to get to me (although it looks like it will be another three weeks!!)
Having my tech books in PDF form on my laptop saves lots of room in my "carry on" luggage when making trips where I have need of the references. Alas, not everything is available that way.
The MSM never stage balanced discussions of conservative positions.
Our current leader does not meet this requirement. Not only did his father never hold allegiance to the United States, his mother spent most of her working life in the Middle East, almost two decades in Indonesia and Pakistan. About this there is no doubt. How could her son have the bond with the United States our founders thought so important as to require it for just the President and Vice President.
Everyone is afraid, or misinforms of the true significance and meaning of “natural born”. It is not an antiquated notion. Men's allegiances are not easy to ferret. This was the best effort of the founders. We have ignored it, potentially at our peril. I fault Levin for not explaining this subtle constitutional principle with the passion he has shown for our liberty in both of his books.
The complexities of who should have asked, and who now has the legal window to question Obama’s qualifications. Separation of powers was designed for good reasons, and is probably what Obama’s team counted on keeping him in office for a while.
The best analysis I've seen is by a very liberal former lawyer, Leo Donoffrio, who has given up trying to fight the legal system. He does not impugn justices. They no longer have a remedy, and thus cannot take the case except on appeal. If anyone failed, it is probably Congress, which addressed McCain's non-natural-born status last year. The cost of giving up is too great for us; the least we can do is to clarify the issue - removing it from the realm of conspiracy theorists. One doesn't need to find a birth certificate. The importance of allegiance for our leader couldn't be more clear. The president wants another country, and was not born with an allegiance to the one his mother left as a young woman.
I pre-ordered it on Amazon and read it this weekend. It’s magnificent. He sets forth a new “Contract with America”. Now we just need to find our new Reagan.
I waited for the second generation Kindle, just to see how they would improve it. Overall, I like it. I especially like the online browsing (although slow), purchase, and download without any added communication costs.
The device is pretty slick, although I'm sure a third generation reader will show even more advances. But the main reason I took the plunge was because of the hugh number of books it can store (they claim up to 1500, but according to my calculations, it would be closer to 3000), and the paperback-price for what would otherwise be a $25-$30 hardcover. I estimate the book savings will pay for the Kindle after about the first 25-30 books purchased.
The biggest drawback I've seen so far is that the selection of books is heavily weighted towards new-release bestsellers and public domain or less well known books. There are a lot of mid-level authors I'd like to see in electronic format, but I guess the first impulse is to offer the hot new books, and older ones that are either cheap or free.
A lot of this can be solved when publishers see this format as another source of profit, just like audio books. You can't cram a lavish coffee-table book into a Kindle, but it's great for serious portable reading.
Mark quickly blew off the “natural born” issue as a nonstarter and it got no life support cept on blogspot radio and a few tenacious attorneys.
I believe it is fear of the powerful weapon used so often by the left - intimidation. Just as many “conservatives” keep their distance from Palin for her Midwestern values, her lack of ivy league credentials, many “good” legal minds are afraid of being labeled “Birthers.” There are no big legal names taking on congress. I suspect that professors and former federal attorneys are loath to appear to join the "fringe" groups and minor lawyers filing suits, with unglamorous active and retired military and minor party affiliations as clients.
Mark teaches the importance of fundamental issues. The founder's brilliance in narrowing the focus to a necessary and sufficient set of principles to serve as a foundation for our legal system did not just happen. There were centuries of legal thought upon which these principles are based. The allegiance of a leader, when blood of a monarch ceases to be the qualification, is critical. The doctrines are very public, but were not of concern in any prior election. We are learning why allegiance is prescribed for the leader of a republic. Obama is changing ours whether we believe or not, because our public voices, our representatives and our press, didn't think being “natural born” was important! It isn't a guarantee - Ayers is natural born. But observing Article II would have prevented Obama from taking office, as it should have.
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