By A. Dent "Aragorn"For a good discussion of individual liberties and statist abuses I suggest Herbert Spencer's "The Man vs. the State", first printed in 1884. It's in the public domain, meaning that the complete text can be downloaded free. My favorite contemporary 'freedom' manifesto in book form is Unintended Consequences. It's a much bigger and thorough book but very much worth reading and passing it along to the next generations.
I wish I could dedicate more time to writing this review but I can tell that neither 'side' is going to appreciate my take on things so my effort will be limited to a very brief discussion.
Levin's book is an honest albeit brief attempt to spell out what 'the conservative' stands for and to show us all how ridiculously absurd the anti-liberty efforts of 'the statist' have become lately. Nothing is unexpected and nothing surprises, not even the many concessions made to the immediate and local issues of the day - after all, the author does host a daily talk show on the radio and most of his audience is currently unhappy or angry Republicans. Reading the book, we learn that the author is on the side of 'the conservative' of course and that both he and 'the conservative' stand for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is unlike 'the statist' who stands for an increasingly oppressive and intrusive state. The conservative wants to preserve individual freedom inside a reasonably sane society of free men while the statist is interested in serving a parasitic, ever-growing and blob-like expanding state. Levin's Manifesto is successful in exposing not only the statist aberration but, not surprisingly, the severe limitations the movement conservatives impose on themselves. The book exposes the many instances where today's conservatives activities and views are indistinguishable from those of the statists they claim to oppose.
- the armies of compassion
- no child left behind
- borrow and spend by the trillions
- listen on and record everyone's phone calls, emails
- making the tax code MORE progressive and the disclosure (to the state) requirements more oppressive
- socializing the prescription of drugs
- maintaining troops in dozens if not hundreds of foreign countries
- torturing American citizens and foreigners
- transforming the 'voluntary' military into a form of indemptured servitude
- expanding NAFTA at the expense of our own citizenry
- initiating numerous 'free trade' treaties, always at the expense of our own citizenry
- viewing the citizens as 'consumers' and the illegal immigrants as 'workers'
- the executive assuming near absolute powers in area it itself defines as 'national security'
- the executive practice of 'signing statements', practically nullifying the laws passed by the legislative
- the department of homeland security
- the war on drugs
- demanding that individuals under 21 can't drink alcohol but insisting that 14 year olds be tried as 'adults'
- secret executive orders
- wars of choice
- the detention, humiliation and killing of tens of thousands of foreigners under the fig leaf of national security
- support for rubber-stamping secret courts granting the state the ability to spy on its own citizens
- the state blackmailing private enterprises into disclosing citizens' private records
And so on and so forth and much, much more. Now, that the horror that was the W regime is an evil in the past and the baton was passed to the statist of the other party, I have little doubt that Dr. Levin may agree that many of the above were activities or initiatives that 'the conservative' opposes or should have opposed. But, sadly, nearly all of those whom Levin may call 'conservatives' today, Levin included, had little if anything to say in opposition at the time when 'the conservative' team was in control. Sadder still, most of today's self-described 'conservatives' would defend most of the W regime clearly extremist statist behaviors today, including its most outrageous borrow and spend, torture and militaristic accomplishments.
But I digress. Levin's Manifesto, which is the last chapter of the book, is preceded by a number of issue-oriented chapters meant to put us in the proper mood. We are reminded that the Founders were pious men, that it would be good if the Constitution were not a near-dead document but, surprise, moribund it is. We learn that the United States are a union of the several states but, surprisingly, the FDR seems to be more responsible for the emergence of the current near-totalitarian central government than Lincoln was. And, of course, the Welfare state should be less so - see what 'the real-life conservatives' have done to roll it back. Immigration from the Third World should be hmmm... firmly controlled by the state - in this instance 'the conservative' likes the big state while 'the statist' seems not to care much. And,books, 'the conservative', who likes to maintain huge armies spread all over the world seems not to worry much about such huge armies being impossible absent the kind of huge state that the strawman statist was supposed to promote.
The book, ends with the actual manifesto. Somewhat to my surprise, the mouse's roar gets a little bit squeaky and parochial.
- The feds should not take more than 20% of the nation's GDP. TWENTY PERCENT??? And this is what 'the conservative' views as 'revolutionary'?
- The conservative continues to support income tax - flat, the conservative says but still an income tax. Yes, it's true. The conservative believes that the government should continue to demand from and FORCE individual citizens to disclose to the state and keep track of every single dime they earn and spend. Yes, the conservative don't like the death tax and some other minutia.
- On the 'environment', the conservative mouse demands that the environmental groups be taxed with the implication that other groups such as those that the conservative finds worthy of tax exceptions may keep theirs. And, let's not forget that in the paragraph above the manifesto was calling for the elimination of corporate taxes.
- The judiciary, the branch that, unlike the legislature DID stand up against some of the W regime most outrageous excesses, should have less power and judges must promise to act in ways that 'the conservative' likes before they are confirmed.
- On state administration, the manifesto calls for a 20% reduction of personnel. Somehow, 20% seems to be the magic number (see 20% of the GDP being given to the state - take THAT statist!). By the way, is it 20% of what? Of W's bloated federal bureaucracy? Of Obama's as of today? Of Ronald Reagan's?
- And, most thoughtfully, the conservative would dissolve all state employees unions, whether state employees want them or not.
- What else... oh yes, education. Get rid of the NEA.
_ And so it goes...
In the end, I was somewhat disappointed and more than a little confused. This book's strawman_the_conservative seems to be as much in support of an all-powerful, semi-totalitarian state as its opponent, strawman_the_statist. The conservative's state turns out to be big, intrusive and treating its citizens as much as subjects as the statist's state.
To me, the difference between the true freedom-loving revolutionaries of old and today's tea-bagging protesters is that between the 60 tons of tea dumped in the Boston harbor back then and the little (biodegradable) teabags of April 15, 2009 - where the angry and fearsome freedom fighters made sure that they asked for a 'permit' (from the state) to demonstrate their righteous anger and promised the state to clean the street and the sidewalks of discarded teabags and other rubbish once the demonstration was over and the cameras stopped recording. They might as well do ballet because it would change absolutely nothing.
_________________________________
P.S.
The author suggests that organizations such as the NEA be treated more or less like illegal monopolies, criminal organizations. I would like to raise the ante a little. In my view, it's the political parties that are responsible for most of the freedoms we lost. It's the political parties that, by means of coercion, transform those who were supposed to be the free PEOPLE's representatives into disciplined, obedient partisan tools, no longer representing the people who elected them but supporting some party political agenda as developed by the unelected party machine. Dr. Levin may agree that the political parties, COULD be prosecuted and banned under the RICO laws as illegal power monopolies, the way organizations such as the Mafia are today and organizations such as the NEA which Dr. Levin would like to see banished.
And, being on the party discussion. The books first reference at today's conservatives seems to be more that of the GOP's 'big tent' and not unlike for mayor's Dinkins of New York 'gorgeous mosaic'. He identifies the several flavors of 'conservatives' - none of them statist??? - such as the libertarians, the neocons, the Christians, the fiscals and so on. What do Ron Paul, W, Bill Krystol and McCain have in common? As far as I can tell, it's mostly GOP party membership.
Thoughts, comments anyone? Perhaps we can hear from Mr. Levin if he happens to read this review. Related Articles:
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Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
The Reds Are Coming- A Call of Warning
By tvtv3 "tvtv3"RESCUING SPRITE was the last book written by Mark Levin and it was kind of a detour from the political observations and commentary some readers, many radio listeners and television viewers were used to. In his latest book, LIBERTY AND TYRANNY, Levin returns to his conservative political writing. The title of the book is taken from a quote from Abraham Lincoln,
"We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name--liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names--liberty and tyranny."
Lincoln was speaking specifically about slavery, but his proclamation was also a warning for future generations of Americans to always be vigilant in protecting their freedoms.
In LIBERTY AND TYRANNY, Levin paints a portrait of a nation that is once again divided, but this time the threat is sly and subversive and uses the liberties entitled for Americans as a way of slowly removing those freedoms. In the book, Levin illustrates the ideas and ideals that made America great and separated us from other countries and powers in the world. Each chapter begins with a short description about what some of those founding beliefs and freedoms, based upon the Constitution, are. Afterwards he uses a compare and contrast approach to display what the enemies of liberty, what Levin describes as Statists (modern liberalism), believe and what true Conservatives believe. He also discusses what the Statists are doing to destroy and take away American freedoms and what Conservatives have to do to prevent it. For those who believe that Levin is just another Bush-lover/Obama-hater, they clearly haven't read LIBERTY AND TYRANNY. Levin illustrates several times throughout the book why former President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain, though labeled as conservatives by the media, are not true conservatives. Even such Republican stalwarts as Dennis Hastert and Newt Gingrich are chastised for some of their Statist-influenced, non-conservative positions.
Though there are a variety of sources used in the book, the majority of textual support comes directly from the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Constitution, and the Federalist Papers. As these, our founding and foundational documents, illustrate so clearly, the rights they describe are not given by any man, but by a Creator and governments, especially our government, only exists by allowance from the people to serve the people. After ten chapters, each about a particular issue, the last section of the book is a sort of epilogue where Levin provides a conservative manifesto. A manifesto is, "a public declaration of principles, policies, or intentions, especially of a political nature" (dictionary.com). Sometimes a manifesto is spoken in a speech, but often a manifesto is delivered via the written word. Levin's is of the later and is something that anyone who has any conservative beliefs should probably at least take a look at.
There are some who share Levin's beliefs, but who might have difficulty reading LIBERTY AND TYRANNY because even though the book is written in a very logical manner, Levin uses a slightly larger vocabulary than some readers might be accustomed. Also, instead of just directly showing his hand, Levin slowly builds each one of his arguments (they're really more like small treatises) so that a reader has to have patience, think, and mentally digest what they are reading. I would hope that this doesn't discourage readers from reading the book, but they should be aware that even though the book is relatively short, it takes time one time to read through it and appreciate what it is saying. Other than that, the only major drawback I had with the book is that not enough time was spent specifically illustrating what conservatives can do to keep their liberties and stop the threat of tyranny. Things that need to happen are listed, but there are very few specifics as to what people can individually do. Related Articles:
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"We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name--liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names--liberty and tyranny."
Lincoln was speaking specifically about slavery, but his proclamation was also a warning for future generations of Americans to always be vigilant in protecting their freedoms.
In LIBERTY AND TYRANNY, Levin paints a portrait of a nation that is once again divided, but this time the threat is sly and subversive and uses the liberties entitled for Americans as a way of slowly removing those freedoms. In the book, Levin illustrates the ideas and ideals that made America great and separated us from other countries and powers in the world. Each chapter begins with a short description about what some of those founding beliefs and freedoms, based upon the Constitution, are. Afterwards he uses a compare and contrast approach to display what the enemies of liberty, what Levin describes as Statists (modern liberalism), believe and what true Conservatives believe. He also discusses what the Statists are doing to destroy and take away American freedoms and what Conservatives have to do to prevent it. For those who believe that Levin is just another Bush-lover/Obama-hater, they clearly haven't read LIBERTY AND TYRANNY. Levin illustrates several times throughout the book why former President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain, though labeled as conservatives by the media, are not true conservatives. Even such Republican stalwarts as Dennis Hastert and Newt Gingrich are chastised for some of their Statist-influenced, non-conservative positions.
Though there are a variety of sources used in the book, the majority of textual support comes directly from the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Constitution, and the Federalist Papers. As these, our founding and foundational documents, illustrate so clearly, the rights they describe are not given by any man, but by a Creator and governments, especially our government, only exists by allowance from the people to serve the people. After ten chapters, each about a particular issue, the last section of the book is a sort of epilogue where Levin provides a conservative manifesto. A manifesto is, "a public declaration of principles, policies, or intentions, especially of a political nature" (dictionary.com). Sometimes a manifesto is spoken in a speech, but often a manifesto is delivered via the written word. Levin's is of the later and is something that anyone who has any conservative beliefs should probably at least take a look at.
There are some who share Levin's beliefs, but who might have difficulty reading LIBERTY AND TYRANNY because even though the book is written in a very logical manner, Levin uses a slightly larger vocabulary than some readers might be accustomed. Also, instead of just directly showing his hand, Levin slowly builds each one of his arguments (they're really more like small treatises) so that a reader has to have patience, think, and mentally digest what they are reading. I would hope that this doesn't discourage readers from reading the book, but they should be aware that even though the book is relatively short, it takes time one time to read through it and appreciate what it is saying. Other than that, the only major drawback I had with the book is that not enough time was spent specifically illustrating what conservatives can do to keep their liberties and stop the threat of tyranny. Things that need to happen are listed, but there are very few specifics as to what people can individually do. Related Articles:
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not any sort of manifesto
By Mark bennett "Mark"This book calls itself a conservative manifesto. A manifesto is usually a public declaration of political principles and intentions. But thats not whats in the book.
Mark Levin has a tough time even coming up with a definition of what a conservative is. He ends up calling it a system of analysis rooted in a handful of centuries old philosophers and in alignment with the views of the founding fathers. But when it comes time to define it, the real definition he provides is a negative one. Levin spends much of the book defining his political opponents (liberals, statists, whatever) and describing what they are for and defines conservatism as being in opposition to them. Its understandable why a talk radio show host would do that, but its an intellectually weak argument. It reduces conservatism from a political system and set of beliefs to a movement of perpetual opposition.
Beyond that basic flaw in the book, Levin spends far too much time complaining about the past. About things that happened 40 or 50 or 70 years ago. The DDT ban in the 1970s doesn't matter today. Fighting over the New Deal doesn't matter today. A Conservative Manifesto has to deal with the problems of *TODAY* rather than whining about things that are long past.
In my opinion, the problem Levin has in even defining conservatism is his loyalty to the politicians of the last decade. In that era, conservatism ceased to mean what it used to mean. It now meant foreign wars to "spread freedom". It meant programs like "no child left behind". It meant expanding medicare. It finally meant in 2008 passing a "tax cut" which was in reality welfare checks. Conservative has become so debased as a word that it means either nothing or anything from Great Society liberalism to libratarianism.
To create a modern conservative manifesto means making hard choices and declaring principals. Levin doesn't do either. The first core issue for anyone who wants to write a conservative manifesto is cleaning house on the conservative side of the asile rather than whining about the opposition as Levin does. The second core issue is coming up with an agenda for change.
This book in the end is a call to keep the status quo and change nothing. And because of that, its not worth much of anyone's time to read. Related Articles:
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Mark Levin has a tough time even coming up with a definition of what a conservative is. He ends up calling it a system of analysis rooted in a handful of centuries old philosophers and in alignment with the views of the founding fathers. But when it comes time to define it, the real definition he provides is a negative one. Levin spends much of the book defining his political opponents (liberals, statists, whatever) and describing what they are for and defines conservatism as being in opposition to them. Its understandable why a talk radio show host would do that, but its an intellectually weak argument. It reduces conservatism from a political system and set of beliefs to a movement of perpetual opposition.
Beyond that basic flaw in the book, Levin spends far too much time complaining about the past. About things that happened 40 or 50 or 70 years ago. The DDT ban in the 1970s doesn't matter today. Fighting over the New Deal doesn't matter today. A Conservative Manifesto has to deal with the problems of *TODAY* rather than whining about things that are long past.
In my opinion, the problem Levin has in even defining conservatism is his loyalty to the politicians of the last decade. In that era, conservatism ceased to mean what it used to mean. It now meant foreign wars to "spread freedom". It meant programs like "no child left behind". It meant expanding medicare. It finally meant in 2008 passing a "tax cut" which was in reality welfare checks. Conservative has become so debased as a word that it means either nothing or anything from Great Society liberalism to libratarianism.
To create a modern conservative manifesto means making hard choices and declaring principals. Levin doesn't do either. The first core issue for anyone who wants to write a conservative manifesto is cleaning house on the conservative side of the asile rather than whining about the opposition as Levin does. The second core issue is coming up with an agenda for change.
This book in the end is a call to keep the status quo and change nothing. And because of that, its not worth much of anyone's time to read. Related Articles:
An Important Read, but Has a Little Flaw
Finally, The Truth Is Out
Bullying Style..
Saturday, April 18, 2009
A definite wake-up call for America!
By Deborah A. Jacobs "Deb in FL"I found this book fascinating, interesting, & informative. Especially enlightening (to me) were the chapters on the welfare state, and on immigration. As the book details, the principles of our founding fathers and our Constitution are getting lost to bigger and bigger government, all in the name of "helping" people. Whatever happened to hard work & personal responsibility? The working people are subsidizing more & more and the government is requiring it through increased taxation and legislation. Thank you, Mr. Levin, for your direct & somber account of the path down which our country is headed, if we do not "wake up". Related Articles:
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Our forefathers would be proud of this book
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Wednesday, April 15, 2009
I could not put it down once I started reading
By Trevor A. LastokaI was surprised with how easy this book was to read unlike the other financial books I have read.
As a CPA, I am constantly investigating the strategies that my friends bring to me. After reading this book, I researched and verifyed that everything was indeed true. After I was comfortable with everything I started my own plan. I just wish I would have known about this 20 years ago.
I am recomending this book to everyone that I care about. Related Articles:
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A Think Outside the Box Kind of Book !
As a CPA, I am constantly investigating the strategies that my friends bring to me. After reading this book, I researched and verifyed that everything was indeed true. After I was comfortable with everything I started my own plan. I just wish I would have known about this 20 years ago.
I am recomending this book to everyone that I care about. Related Articles:
A Great Read
A Written Infomercial for Insurance
Finally A Way That Actally Works!
Good work, Ms Yellen
A Think Outside the Box Kind of Book !
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