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June 08, 2005
Tick Off a Republican ... Read a Good Book!
Our crybaby Republican friends have put their tear ducts in high gear over Howard Dean's telling it like it is. (After all, did the Shrub ever do an honest day's work before becoming President of the United States?) Yet they think it perfectly acceptable to publish an official list of the "Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries" in which they categorize several progressive classics right alongside the writings of Hitler, Lenin, and Chairman Mao!
Yes, in the narrow conservative mind, there is not much difference between Mein Kampf and The Feminine Mystique, both of which appear in the top ten of Human Events Magazine's list. As we might expect from Ronald Reagan's favorite periodical, the magazine also places such "harmful" tomes as John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, Ralph Nader's Unsafe At Any Speed, and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring very near the top ten. See a C-SPAN interview with one of the perpetrators of this list:
Conservatives are probably asking to have these dangerous books removed from libraries everywhere. This is all the more reason for us progressives to find some nice used copies and throw them into our tote bags for summer reading!
Posted by at June 8, 2005 10:11 PM | Permalink
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Comments
I notice Darwin's Origin of Species receives honorable mention as well.
Here's the link to the list of dangerous books from Human Events: http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7591
Posted by: Marc Olivier at June 8, 2005 11:21 PM
Well now, you do know that evolution is only a theory, don't you? Surely it is obvious that Mr. Darwin's book was harmful because it obscured the facts about "intelligent design."
Thanks, Marc, for the link. I was so fascinated by C-SPAN's interview with this goofball that I put in that link and forgot to put the link to the actual list.
Posted by: Marguerite Reed at June 9, 2005 12:53 AM
The following satire is only slightly relevant to Marguerite's topic:
DEAN CALLS REPUBLICANS FAT, UGLYApologizes for Omitting Insults from Recent Tirade
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean apologized today for calling Republicans "pretty much a white, Christian party", saying that he failed to mention that they were "fat and ugly" as well.
(snip)
But hours later, Dr. Dean continued to stoke the controversy with his response to Sen. Frist's remarks: "I knew I was forgetting something; Republicans are really stupid, too, and Bill Frist, in my opinion, is not even a real doctor."
In the aftermath of Dr. Dean's latest remarks, leading Democrats were mulling what to do about their volatile party chief, exploring a range of options including driving him out to the country and ditching him along a secluded road.
Posted by: PDiddie at June 9, 2005 07:23 AM
If they hadn't limited their consideration to the 19th and 20th, they probably would've included Thomas Paine's Common Sense and the Koran. Even so they missed a few! Like the number books, "Fahrenheit 451", "Catch-22", and "Slaughterhouse 5", all of which probably had a bigger impact on the average reader than any of the books listed. And what about Frances Moore Lappe's "Diet for a Small Planet"? That wicked book helped corrupt me and a lot of others to the evil of vegetarianism.
Then of course there was Dr. Seuss's highly subversive "The Butter Battle Book"...
Posted by: Mike Chappell at June 9, 2005 11:25 AM
Dr. Seuss's "The Lorax" is of course another great example of extreme environmental radicalism.
We certainly don't need the environment. Free markets will solve all our problems.
Posted by: Marc Olivier at June 9, 2005 12:06 PM
Remember, environmentalists and animal rights activists are our most dangerous terrorist threats! Be vigilant!
(And how could I forget "1984"... why do all the best "subversive" novels have numbers in the titles.)
Posted by: Mike Chappell at June 9, 2005 01:23 PM
No, no, no. You've got it all wrong. Free markets won't solve environmental problems, but it doesn't matter because the Rapture is coming! (end sarcasm)
Posted by: Lisa at June 10, 2005 02:52 PM