Category: Books

“A generation of girls is at risk. Abigail Shrier’s essential book will help you understand what the trans craze is and how you can inoculate your child against it—or how to retrieve her from this dangerous path.”

‘Irreversible Damage’ Author Has Two Words for Amazon After Employees Quit in Protest of Selling Her Book

At least two Amazon employees have quit in protest of the company’s decision to sell Abigail Shrier’s book, “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.”

According to NBC News, the resignations come after a complaint to the company’s internal message board drew support from hundreds of corporate employees.

One of the employees who quit identifies as a transgender.

She was happier with a decision Amazon made several months before to stop carrying another book, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” because of its framing of transgender identity as a form of mental illness. But she says this latest move by Amazon to continue to sell “Irreversible Damage” went too far.

“The book literally has[craze] in the title and considers being transgender a mental illness in many senses throughout the book,” Xenia said.

“I found it extremely hypocritical for Amazon to say that it would stock this book and not another similar one,” Xenia said. “It looks like Amazon had to remove that particular book for PR reasons, not because they felt morally obligated to.” (NBC News)

In response to news of the resignations, Shrier told Amazon HR, “you’re welcome!”

While gender dysphoria was “vanishingly rare” not long ago, it has become a disturbing trend among young females, Shrier’s book details.
“These are girls who had never experienced any discomfort in their biological sex until they heard a coming-out story from a speaker at a school assembly or discovered the internet community of trans ‘influencers,'” the book’s description states. “Unsuspecting parents are awakening to find their daughters in thrall to hip trans YouTube stars and ‘gender-affirming’ educators and therapists who push life-changing interventions on young girls—including medically unnecessary double mastectomies and puberty blockers that can cause permanent infertility.”

Shrier’s book is listed as a No. 1 best seller in Amazon’s Popular Adolescent Psychology section and has a 4.6 out of 5 rating on the site.

Massad Ayoob’s ‘In The Gravest Extreme’ Still Relevant in 2021?

Most everyone in “gun land” knows who Massad Ayoob is. In the Gravest Extreme was first published in 1980. Even though it is over 40 years old, it is still available today, either new or used, for a few dollars less. It runs around $20 a copy, and I have seen it used as low as $13 a copy. Cheap enough that there really isn’t a good reason not to read it. 

Basic Overview

There are 17 chapters in the almost 130-page book. A wide range of topics are covered in those 17 chapters. Ranging from car guns (what commonly gets called a “truck gun” now), carrying guns outside of the home, using guns for home defense, and using guns to defend a business, to name a few. The book’s breadth is rather large, so the chapters tend to be short, easy reads. The common thread throughout that serves to tie it all together is the legal use of force and all of the potential pitfalls of using force.

The last few chapters get into topics like selecting a handgun for concealed carry, a comprehensive overview of defensive shooting, and the like. This is perhaps where the content has not aged as well as other parts of the book. Firearms, specifically handguns and the ammunition we feed them, have moved pretty far down the road from where 1980 was.

How Has it Aged?

It doesn’t take long to realize the age of the book when reading it. Not because the information isn’t relevant. But the word choices are just starting to show their age a bit. Ayoob’s flair for writing is clear, making the book a rather easy read despite the dated language. 

Because the laws have changed over the last 4 decades, some of the specific legal examples will not be useful anymore. Conceptually, for the most part, I think there is enough similarity that the value is not completely lost, though. It would be on the reader to know their local laws and what parts of the book are so outdated to no longer be completely accurate.

Even though dated, there is plenty of application left in the larger message Ayoob is trying to get across with this book. First and foremost, avoidance is preferable. Ayoob does a good job of showing both sides of the scale. The potential costs of a defensive action weighed against being able to avoid the need outright. It serves more to temper the often overly aggressive misunderstandings about the use of force to protect self and others than it does to encourage the use of force at all. If there is another way out, take the other way out. This is an idea that sometimes is lost in the bravado of the modern “gun culture.” 

Wrapping it Up

Overall, I think this sums up the purpose of the book well.

“The man who wears a gun carries with it the power of life and death, and therefore the responsibility to deport himself with greater calm and wisdom than his unarmed counterpart…”

It is about being prudent and good decision-making. Do not do the things that would be expected to put you in a bad position.

For something written so long ago, I was surprised to find a significant amount of alignment with what is considered best practice currently. At least partially proving true that “what is old is new again,” I suppose. While I probably wouldn’t call In the Gravest Extreme timeless, I do think there are still plenty of lessons to be learned from it, and it is certainly thought-provoking. It’s worth the read.

Historian Falsely Claims The Second Amendment Was Created To Protect Slavery
The goal isn’t merely to just falsify our history, but to do so in a way that breeds further division within the country.

After spending decades assailing the Second Amendment rights of American citizens, cultural Marxists believe they’ve finally found the perfect line of attack against the constitutional right to keep and bear arms: racism.

Just like every other aspect of the American Founding, the ratification of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is rooted in nothing more than white supremacy. Or at least, that’s what scholar Carol Anderson wants you to believe.

In her latest book, “The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America,” Anderson argues that the “well regulated Militia” inscribed in the Second Amendment was created to provide states with a mechanism to quell potential slave uprisings.

“It was in response to the concerns coming out of the Virginia ratification convention for the Constitution, led by Patrick Henry and George Mason, that a militia that was controlled solely by the federal government would not be there to protect the slave owners from an enslaved uprising,” she told NPR. “And … James Madison crafted that language in order to mollify the concerns coming out of Virginia and the anti-Federalists, that they would still have full control over their state militias — and those militias were used in order to quell slave revolts.”

Anderson claimed the Second Amendment “provided the cover, the assurances that Patrick Henry and George Mason needed, that the militias would not be controlled by the federal government, but that they would be controlled by the states and at the beck and call of the states to be able to put down these uprisings.”

While Anderson argues that her book isn’t “anti-gun,” her statements made to CNN say otherwise. When asked about the recent announcement that the Supreme Court would pick up a gun rights case, Anderson pivoted to gun control, asserting that opposition to such measures is likely based on white Americans’ fear of black Americans.

“After Sandy Hook, nothing happened,” she said. “How could that be? That could be because of this underlying fear that if there are real gun safety laws then whites will be left defenseless against these black people.”

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Concealed Carry Revolution: Expanding The Right to Bear Arms in America

The liberalization of concealed carry laws over the past several decades represents a dramatic expansion of the right to bear arms in the United States. Concealed Carry Revolution offers the first comprehensive but concise history of the development of these laws, from the restricted era of gun carry in the 19th century, through discretionary permitting systems in the 20th century, to today’s shall issue and permitless carry regimes. It also explores variation in the implementation of shall issue concealed carry laws from state to state, especially in terms of training requirements. Accessibly written, this book will appeal to experts and interested others alike.

Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military

Irresistible Revolution is a timely and bold contribution from an active-duty Space Force lieutenant colonel who sees the impact of a neo-Marxist agenda at the ground level within our armed forces. In it, author Matthew Lohmeier provides answers to many important questions that Americans are currently asking: Is systemic racism a reality, or is much of our talk about race merely a rhetorical tool used to divide Americans? Why has the Defense Department suddenly shifted to a focus on extremism within the ranks? Is there really a white supremacy or white nationalist problem within our armed forces? Are the many Diversity and Inclusion trainings that are being conducted in our federal agencies helping solve these problems, or are they creating conflict where none previously existed? What is Marxism, and what does it have to do with all of this?

Though pundits often appear perplexed by current policy decisions being made in our country, our apparent missteps are part of a longstanding plot against America, patiently and methodically pursued by those with a mind intent on the overthrow of the US Government and its replacement with a communist dictatorship. Unfortunately, many of those now furthering that agenda do so unwittingly.

After becoming aware of the Marxist conquest of American society, you will never again look at things in the same way. Mainstream media, social media, the public education system (including universities), as well as federal agencies have all become vessels of various schools of thought that are rooted in Marxist ideology – an ideology bent on the destruction of America’s history, of Western tradition, specifically Judeo-Christian values, and of patriotism and conservatism. Marxism’s sinister and dark agenda has led the country into what some have called a cold civil war. The problem has become systemic, a tragedy considering that the defeat of Marxist-communist ideology was the very cause against which our nation spent great treasures of blood and iron during much of the twentieth century.

The book’s three-part framework begins with a discussion of the greatness of the American ideal (including the importance of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the notions of individual and civil liberties), transitions to an examination of the history and overarching narrative of Marxist ideology (specifically Marx’s and Engels’ Communist Manifesto wherein the oppressor vs. oppressed narrative is developed), and concludes by looking into the ongoing transformation of America’s military culture and military policy, while also providing a warning about where the country is headed if we choose to not make an immediate course correction.

Irresistible Revolution also covers a breadth of hot topics everyone is hearing and talking about – topics that actually have implications for our national security: woke ideology, cancel culture, identity politics, the Black Lives Matter movement, anti-racism, postmodernism, political correctness, and critical and cynical theories, to include critical race theory. Lohmeier’s penetrating and common sense look at current events within our military and across American society is a sublimely unique contribution that is certain to be shared, referenced, and discussed for years to come. Every American, including every US military servicemember, needs to read and understand the Irresistible Revolution.

The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People or a Privilege of the Ruling Class?

This is the first scholarly study of the history of the right to bear and carry arms outside of the home, a right held dear by Americans before, during, and after the Founding period; it rebuts attempts by anti-gun advocates to rewrite history and “cancel” the Founding generation’s lived experiences bearing firearms.

The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized the individual right to keep and bear arms, but courts in states that have extreme gun control restrictions apply tests that balance the right away. This book demonstrates that the right peaceably to carry firearms is a fundamental right recognized by the text of the Second Amendment and is part of our American history and tradition.

Halbrook’s scholarly work is an exhaustive historical treatment of the fundamental, individual right to carry firearms outside of the home. Halbrook traces this right from its origins in England through American colonial times, the American Revolution, the Constitution’s ratification debates, and then through the antebellum and post-bellum periods, including the history surrounding the enactment of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

This book is another important contribution by Halbrook to the scholarship concerning the text, history and tradition of the Second Amendment’s right to bear and carry arms.

Straight Talk on Armed Defense: What the Experts Want You to Know

In Straight Talk on Armed Defense: What the Experts Want You to Know, Massad Ayoob and the nation’s leading experts on personal protection, self-defense and concealed carry deliver authoritative guidance from their areas of expertise and personal experience. In chapters by distinguished authors hand-picked by Massad Ayoob:
  • John Hearne takes us “inside the defender’s head” and reveals the most effective route to train and prepare for self-defense incidents.
  • Dr. Anthony Semone discusses post-shooting trauma and necessary steps to develop resilience and symptom reduction following a deadly force event.
  • Dr. Alexis Artwohl explains why understanding how the mind operates is critical to surviving an attack and the legal and emotional challenges that follow.
  • Dr. William Aprill describes “the face of the enemy” to help us understand violence and those who traffic in it.
  • Craig “Southnarc” Douglas details the conditions present during the typical criminal assault and how to incorporate those conditions into your training.
  • Massad Ayoob discusses power, responsibility and the armed lifestyle.
  • Tom Givens underscores the importance of finding relevant training, through case studies of his own students involved in armed encounters.
  • “Spencer Blue,” active robbery/homicide detective, reveals patterns that emerged during his investigations and describes the differences in tactics of citizens who won versus those who lost.
  • Ron Borsch presents dozens of actual cases of armed and unarmed citizens single-handedly stopping mass murders in progress.
  • Harvey Hedden provides insight and advice to guide lawfully armed citizens in interactions with law enforcement.
  • Jim Fleming, Esq. describes the criminal trial process and how it plays out in a “righteous use of deadly force in self-defense” case.
  • Marty Hayes, JD, provides the critical questions that must be asked to choose a reliable post-self-defense incident support provider.
Get the straight talk on armed defense, from this unique compendium of the world’s leading subject matter experts in lethal self-defense.

 

Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America Paperback

The Overwhelming Evidence of the Origin of the COVID-19 Pandemic Was Covered Up by US Government Officials, US Scientific Authorities and Their Chinese Counterparts

A sobering and fascinating study on war in the modern era, Unrestricted Warfare carefully explores strategies that militarily and politically disadvantaged nations might take in order to successfully attack a geopolitical super-power like the United States. American military doctrine is typically led by technology; a new class of weapon or vehicle is developed, which allows or encourages an adjustment in strategy. Military strategists Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui argue that this dynamic is a crucial weakness in the American military, and that this blind spot with regard to alternative forms warfare could be effectively exploited by enemies. Unrestricted Warfare concerns the many ways in which this might occur, and, in turn, suggests what the United States might do to defend itself.

The Overwhelming Evidence of the Origin of the COVID-19 Pandemic Was Covered Up by US Government Officials, US Scientific Authorities and Their Chinese Counterparts

Already by the end of January 2020, elements within the U.S. government and the U.S. scientific establishment were becoming increasingly concerned that the American people might learn the truth about the origin of the COVID-19.

That is, it was an artificial virus created in a laboratory in the People’s Republic of China with the assistance of U.S. scientists and funding from the U.S. government.
In addition to pressure coming directly from the Chinese Communist Party, there was, no doubt, similar coercion being brought to bear on susceptible and compliant people in Washington D.C. by international financial interests, whose investments in China would be placed in jeopardy if it was widely accepted that China manufactured the COVID-19 virus.

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A BADGER AMONG KITTENS BY DENTON SALLE

Certain stories make the rounds about wild animals that get mistaken for pets.  It can be someone from another country trying to pick up a skunk because it looks like a cat, a coyote or bear cub thought to be a stray dog, or a feral dog left alone with a house cat.  The stories never end well.  Once of the worse I heard (and some of these are true) was a young woman who found a badger cub and thought it a lost kitten so she took it home and put it in the basket with her kittens.  Whether true or not, it makes a good model for a multicultural society that has scrapped the idea of a common culture, particularly when that culture ignores the differences between classes and ethnic groups for the simplistic broad groupings of race and sex.  Whether you realize it or not, there are badgers in the basket.

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Revealed: 104 terrorist border crossings.

Critics laughed at former President Donald Trump when he claimed that terrorists, “some real bad ones,” had crossed the border just as he was selling Congress on paying for a border wall. But it turns out that Trump was correct that in the waves of illegal immigrants pouring over the southern border in the last decade were dozens of terrorists and terror sympathizers.

In his new book, America’s Covert Border War, The Untold Story of the Nation’s Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration, journalist and former counterterrorism intelligence official Todd Bensman found a model in Europe that could play out in the United States.

There, he found 104 crossed the border. That, he told Secrets, “proved the concept that border crossings by terrorists can and does happen.”

Government records he reviewed showed that 22,000 so-called “special interest aliens,” the catchphrase for terrorist-related immigrants, were “encountered” between 2008 and 2019.

“Professional homeland security leadership under both Democrats and Republicans, with access to intelligence reporting most Americans don’t have, regarded the threat of terrorist infiltration as quite real,” wrote Bensman, now with the Center for Immigration Studies.

And just a few slipping in, as with the 9/11 attackers, could be catastrophic.

“Despite comparatively small numbers, the potential consequences of attack from that pathway are high and society-changing,” he wrote.

His book is being released this week as President Biden is reversing the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration by implementing existing law that the former Obama administration simply ignored.

That raises the possibility that terrorists will again hide in the waves of illegal immigrants crossing the border.

In an interview with Secrets, former acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan raised concerns about terrorists and cartels mixing in with those the new administration plans to let in.

“We saw the cartels and smuggling operations use families and kids as a tactic to distract Border Patrol agents. They would send a family and a small group across knowing that resources would go there to process them and care for them,” he said.

“Meanwhile, the criminals and drugs went across the border right behind them. Now, that’s exactly what is already happening,” he said as some 3,500 are now surging the border since Biden signaled an open-door policy.

Clarification: This article has been updated to make clear that the border crossings counted by the author were in Europe during the migrant crisis and that this demonstrates it can happen in the U.S.

Battlefield America: The War on the American People, you don’t even have to be a dissident to get flagged by the government for surveillance, censorship and detention.

All you really need to be is a citizen of the American police state.

Police forces across the United States have been transformed into extensions of the military. Our towns and cities have become battlefields, and we the American people are now the enemy combatants to be spied on, tracked, frisked, and searched. For those who resist, the consequences can be a one-way trip to jail, or even death. Battlefield America: The War on the American People is constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead’s terrifying portrait of a nation at war with itself. In exchange for safe schools and lower crime rates, we have opened the doors to militarized police, zero tolerance policies in schools, and SWAT team raids. The insidious shift was so subtle that most of us had no idea it was happening. This follow-up to Whitehead’s award-winning A Government of Wolves, is a brutal critique of an America on the verge of destroying the very freedoms that define it. Hands up!―the police state has arrived.

CMP Guide to TARGET SHOOTING WITH VINTAGE MILITARY RIFLES

Description
Vintage military rifle competitors and collectors alike will be excited to learn the Civilian Marksmanship Program has released a new book, entitled TARGET SHOOTING WITH VINTAGE MILITARY RIFLES, authored by Gary Anderson, Director of Civilian Marksmanship, Emeritus and two-time highpower rifle Olympic gold medalist. The 284-page, soft-bound, fully-illustrated first edition is likely the most comprehensive manuscript ever written about the methods of training and competing with popular American and foreign vintage military rifles. NLU 792 $29.95 plus S&H

“Anyone who knows Gary, and is a fan of vintage military rifle shooting, will find this book to be the most complete coverage of the topic, from a competitor’s and historian’s point of view,” said Christie Sewell, CMP Programs Chief.

Anderson, who stunned his Olympic rivals in Tokyo and Mexico City in the 1960s, is also a multiple U.S. and international record holder. He has poured countless hours into Target Shooting With Vintage Military Rifles for the benefit of both the serious and recreational competitor.

As the originator of the CMP’s wildly-popular competitive vintage rifle program, he set out to present a detailed manual covering all aspects of safely shooting rifles such as the 1903 Springfield, U.S. Krag, 1917 U.S. Enfield, M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, and many more, including rifles from “across the pond.”

Target Shooting With Vintage Military Rifles is comprised of 18 chapters covering:

    • Origins & Fundamental of Marksmanship
    • Firing Rifles in Competition
    • Operation, Cleaning, Loading & Unloading
    • Rifle and Range Safety
    • Sight Adjustment, Zeroing & Fine Tuning
    • Critical Value of the Sling
    • Prone, Sitting and Standing Position Building
    • Highpower Rifle Match Procedures
    • Using a Scorebook/Databook
    • Strategies for Improvement

I think it can be put a bit more simply:
Someone ever tries to kill you, you try to kill them right back.

When Violence Is the Answer: Learning How to Do What It Takes When Your Life Is at Stake.

In a civilized society, violence is rarely the answer. But when it is, it’s the only answer. The sound of breaking glass downstairs in the middle of the night. The words, “Move and you die.” The hands on your child, or the knife to your throat.

In this essential book, self-protection expert and former military intelligence officer Tim Larkin changes the way we think about violence in order to save our lives. By deconstructing our assumptions about violence — its morality, its function in modern society, how it actually works — Larkin unlocks the shackles of our own taboos and arms us with what we need to know to prevent, prepare for, and survive the unthinkable event of life-or-death violence.

Through a series of harrowing true-life stories, Larkin demonstrates that violence is a tool equally effective in the hands of the “bad guy” or the “good guy”; that the person who acts first, fastest and with the full force of their body is the one who survives; and that each and every one of us is capable of being that person when our lives are at stake.

An indispensable resource, When Violence is the Answer will remain with you long after you’ve finished reading, as the bedrock of your self-protection skills and knowledge.

The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense

There’s a war against truth… and if we don’t win it, intellectual freedom will be a casualty.

The West’s commitment to freedom, reason, and true liberalism has never been more seriously threatened than it is today by the stifling forces of political correctness.

Dr. Gad Saad, the host of the enormously popular YouTube show THE SAAD TRUTH, exposes the bad ideas—what he calls “idea pathogens”—that are killing common sense and rational debate. Incubated in our universities and spread through the tyranny of political correctness, these ideas are endangering our most basic freedoms—including freedom of thought and speech.

The danger is grave, but as Dr. Saad shows, politically correct dogma is riddled with logical fallacies. We have powerful
weapons to fight back with—if we have the courage to use them.

A provocative guide to defending reason and intellectual freedom and a battle cry for the preservation of our fundamental rights, The Parasitic Mind will be the most controversial and talked-about book of the year.

Tucker documented his first hand knowledge of the shenanigans by the actual people who had just enacted and ratified the Constitution to try and subvert and evade its restrictiveness.

Online:
View of the Constitution of the United States 

On amazon:
View of the Constitution of the United States 
by St. George Tucker

As professor of law at the College of William and Mary, St. George Tucker in 1803 published View of the Constitution—the first extended, systematic commentary on the United States Constitution after its ratification and later its amendment by the Bill of Rights. View was originally part of Tucker’s “Americanized” or “republicanized” edition of the multivolume Commentaries on the Laws of England by Sir William Blackstone. Generations of American law students, lawyers, judges, and statesmen learned their Blackstone—and also their understanding of the Constitution—through Tucker. As Clyde N. Wilson notes, “Tucker is the exponent of Jeffersonian republicanism . . . in contrast to the commercial republicanism of New England that has since the Civil War been taken to be the only true form of American philosophy.” In addition to the entirety of View, the Liberty Fund volume includes seven other essays from Tucker’s renowned edition of Blackstone. These include “On the Study of Law,” “Of the Unwritten, or Common Law of England,” and “Of the Several Forms of Government.”

St. George Tucker (1752–1827) was an officer in the American Revolutionary Army, a Professor of Law, justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, judge of the Federal District Court for Virginia by appointment of President James Madison, progenitor of a long line of jurists and scholars, and stepfather of John Randolph of Roanoke.

One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History.

With Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s sudden passing, control of the Supreme Court—and with it the fate of the Constitution—has become the deciding issue for many voters in the 2020 presidential election. And the stakes could not be higher.

With a simple majority on the Supreme Court, the left will have the power to curtail or even abolish the freedoms that have made our country a beacon to the world. We are one vote away from losing the Republic that the Founders handed down to us. Our most precious constitutional rights hang by a thread.

Senator Ted Cruz has spent his entire career on the front line of the war to protect our constitutional rights. And as a Supreme Court clerk, solicitor general of Texas, and private litigator, he played a key role in some of the most important legal cases of the past two decades.

In One Vote Away, you will discover how often the high court decisions that affect your life have been decided by just one vote. One vote preserves your right to speak freely, to bear arms, and to exercise your faith. One vote will determine whether your children enjoy their full inheritance as American citizens.

God may endow us with “certain unalienable rights,” but whether we enjoy them depends on nine judges—the “priests of the robe” who have the last say in our system of government. Drawing back the curtain of their temple, Senator Cruz reveals the struggles, arguments, and strife that have shaped the fate of those rights. No one who reads One Vote Away can ever again take a single seat on the Supreme Court for granted.

The Battle of Mogadishu: Firsthand Accounts from the Men of Task Force Ranger Paperback – Illustrated, July 26, 2005

“No matter how skilled the writer of nonfiction, you are always getting the story secondhand. Here’s a chance to go right to the source. . . . These men were there.”
–MARK BOWDEN (from the Foreword)

It started as a mission to capture a Somali warlord. It turned into a disastrous urban firefight and death-defying rescue operation that shocked the world and rattled a great nation. Now the 1993 battle for Mogadishu, Somalia–the incident that was the basis of the book and film Black Hawk Down–is remembered by the men who fought and survived it. Six of the best in our military recall their brutal experiences and brave contributions in these never-before-published, firstperson accounts.

“Operation Gothic Serpent,” by Matt Eversmann: As a “chalk” leader, Eversmann was part of the first group of Rangers to “fast rope” from the Black Hawk helicopters. It was his chalk that suffered the first casualty of the battle.

“Sua Sponte: Of Their Own Accord,” by Raleigh Cash: Responsible for controlling and directing fire support for the platoon, Cash entered the raging battle in the ground convoy sent to rescue his besieged brothers in arms.

“Through My Eyes,” by Mike Kurth: One of only two African Americans in the battle, Kurth confronted his buddies’ deaths, realizing that “the only people whom I had let get anywhere near me since I was a child were gone.”

“What Was Left Behind,” by John Belman: He roped into the biggest firefight of the battle and considers some of the mistakes that were made, such as using Black Hawk helicopters to provide sniper cover.

“Be Careful What You Wish For,” by Tim Wilkinson: He was one of the Air Force pararescuemen or PJs–the highly trained specialists for whom “That Others May Live” is no catchphrase but a credo–and sums up his incomprehensible courage as “just holding up my end of the deal on a bad day.”

“On Friendship and Firefights,” by Dan Schilling: As a combat controller, he was one of the original planners for the deployment of SOF forces to Mogadishu in the spring of 1993. During the battle, he survived the initial assault and carnage of the vehicle convoys only to return to the city to rescue his two closest friends, becoming, literally, “Last Out.”

With America’s withdrawal from Somalia an oft-cited incitement to Osama bin Laden, it is imperative to revisit this seminal military mission and learn its lessons from the men who were there and, amazingly, are still here.

The author of the book wants free college which means he wants the old marxist canard of ‘equality of outcome’ which results in nothing more than  the ‘lowest common denominator’ i.e. stupid printed on all diplomas in invisible ink.

A Book with a Kernel of Truth—and a Grain Silo of Nonsense

Every so often, a leftist thinker breaks free from the orthodoxy to point out that policies favored by “progressives” can have adverse consequences. When that happens, it’s worth paying attention.

We have such an instance with the publication of The Cult of Smart by Fredrik deBoer, a writer and one-time academic whose work has appeared in leftist publications such as The New Republic and Jacobin.

He proudly proclaims his Marxism, saying that what all good Marxists want is a better, more equitable world. While he sees a lot to complain about—America still allows capitalism, after all—his particular target in the book is the way our education system overemphasizes academic credentials. We excessively reward those who are good at getting them at the expense of people who lack academic ability. Continue reading “”

We’re Not Stupid

Bob Woodward has a new book out. It’s supposedly bad for the sitting Republican president, released two months before the general election. It’s deemed “worse than Watergate.” Wash. Repeat. Are we seriously still doing this?

Are we really going to treat this as some ordinary election cycle with some ordinary Republican in office? Does the media still think their ordinary reaction to a predictable, ordinary book will elicit an ordinary public reaction? Sincerely, I’m asking.

When you’re really forced to think about the time in which we live, the men from which to choose as candidates, and the hellscape our once-great American cities have become – to even consider Bob Woodward’s book as something upon which your vote would hinge is perhaps the dumbest thing one could ponder. Continue reading “”