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Old March 22nd, 2011, 02:43 PM
James Brody James Brody is offline
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Arrow Fight of our Lives

Bennett, William J & Seth Leibsohn (2011) The Fight of Our Lives: Knowing the Enemy, Speaking the Truth, & Choosing to Win the War Against Radical Islam. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. $20 minus discounts.

Bennett and Liebsohn became old friends after I tripped over their radio show several years ago. Liebsohn now does some other things but I still catch Bill and crew at six-o’clock most mornings. I am, therefore, strongly inclined to praise this book because of the importance of its topic – the threats to all of us from Islam - and because of my loyalty to friends.

The book spans 153 pages – it took me about two hours to read them - and covers our growing awareness of the historical nature of Islam’s threat to us, our softening language and tactics for facing it, and our need to sound bugles, beat drums, and sing hymns. There are facts – bloodied Dutch publishers, bloodied subway riders, bloodied soldiers, and bloodied aircraft passengers. And there are denials from our national leaders, the same opportunists who send our Marines to hunt down (politely with three-round clips) the seeds of radical Islam in the sand, ice, and rocks of Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. No Bibles, no booze, no broads … a hair-shirted war between troopers separated by a thousand years.

The writing is mostly Seth. The sentences are shorter, the words longer, and the effect can be somewhat annoying. Bill is a smoother persuader. Seth, however, is younger and has decades to unfold himself.

I’m also a finger-tips guy rather than one who arranges ideas for their own sake.

Some neglected ideas:
- The average IQ for the Arabic sections of Africa and the Middle East is usually between 75-85. That in Israel is about 105. The result is two collectivist organizations that cannot stand each other, one led by very bright clerics using strict rules and consequences and the other pushed from its roots, a collectivist bush whereon every leaf acts for the benefit of every other leaf and stalls confused when there are jeers instead of thanks. The one side is marked by impulsiveness and old human instincts for ownership, spite, dominance, and telling women what to do. The other by individual plans, inventiveness, and bossy wives. The one may well dominate the results, the other traces a path to suicide by confused thoughts between right and wrong. (This sequences shines when you compare the Old with the New Testament! I will make you die becomes please make me die.)
- Sharia – Islamic law – is incompatible with the United States constitution. If your wife wears a burka, you are probably a bystander or a betrayer. You are being cheated if you give constitutional protections to Sharia followers.
- Both Islam and America sanction lies. Islam to nonbelievers, American liberals – in New England, universities, and large cities – to conservatives and southerners. American elites tend to be polysyllabic Marxists, many of the rest of us use shorter words and line up instinctively behind Jefferson and Madison and Adams or behind Hayek, Levin, Sowell, or Krauthammer.

Some hope:
- The split between liberal and conservative has heritable foundations that resist educator’s drivel. Even if you went to Harvard or Columbia, Hayek or Levin can be convincing at any age if you are susceptible to the viewpoints. (As a Republican staff blurted to me shortly after I was graduated from college, “Who in hell ever told you that you’re a Democrat?” I instantly flipped.)
- There is some chance that prosperity tips mothers to produce more socialist children! It’s called “genomic imprinting” and tells of sturdy mothers making their sons smaller, less impulsive, more verbal, and less competitive. “You saw her first, you take her home…”
- Religion is a player in the card games played by a culture. Toynbee observed that the collapse of twenty cultures was associated with a failure of one religion and the invasion by a second one. High-verbals tend to be atheist and look to human minds to direct nature. They fail.
- Most important, the average one of us is smarter than the average one of them, less impulsive, and just as determined to keep our world as we have made it. It’s been true for at least 900 years.
Finally, Mr. Liebsohn has the best idea of all…he lives in Arizona and packs…

References:
Levin, Mark (2009) Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Hayek, Friedrich A (1944/1944) The Road to Serfdom. Chicago: University of Chicago.
McCarthy, Andrew (2010) The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America. New York: Encounter Books.
Podhoretz, Norman (2007) World War IV:The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism. New York: Doubleday.
Sowell, Thomas. (2002) A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles. NY: Basic Books.
Wright, Lawrence (2006) The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. NY: Knopf.

Last edited by James Brody; March 23rd, 2011 at 10:28 AM..
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Old March 25th, 2011, 12:26 PM
ToddStark ToddStark is offline
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Default Re: Fight of our Lives

Interesting review. Thanks!
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