De Doc's Institute for Memetic Engineering And Polymaths' Pursuits

The ever-delightful James Lileks brought this little gem from the Cold War to my attention.

The website’s anonymous author is right – this book needs to be rescued from obscurity, and to “be shared with the world". Even though the Soviet Union is no more, this “primer for children and diplomats” is still full of trenchant wisdom:

Old Man History underwent some alterations. Parts which did not fit were rearranged, useless ones thrown away and more suitable parts introduced. The rearranging of History remains an important and demanding task in People’s Democracies to this day.

Hold onto that thought.

You will not understand much of what passes for political discourse, just now, without the insight.

More on that, and the implications, to follow…

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of the USS Clueless, I think I’ll take an opportunity to add The Jacksonian Tradition to my list of Library entries.

Mead’s analysis is solid, well reasoned, and notes both the strengths and the flaws of the Jacksonian philosophy. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s well worth the perusal.

This one’s by way of Kim du Toit: America’s Fascination With Firearms.

One might think, from the title, that this article is going to be a LA Times article diatribe against all those horrid gun owners. Fear not; it’s a rather different article entirely…

Unlike most of the world’s people, many Americans view the possession of firearms as the norm rather than the exception.

The European and Japanese feudal aristocracies loathed firearms, because they eliminated the role of the nobility in combat.

For the heirs of Washington and Jackson, this would be a bad thing…why?

Kopel’s article gives:

– a nice precis of the role of the armed citizen in the founding of the nation

– a brief but thorough review of the Second Amendment (and a fisking, en passant, of the claims that the Second Amendment is the ONLY Amendment in the Bill Of Rights which enumerates a state’s rights, as opposed to the citizens’ rights)

– a history lesson on what happens when you give up a few of your rights at a time (courtesy of the UK)

– and reflections on the ways in which American society is fundamentally different from European and Asian society in both it’s insistence on individual, inalienable rights, and the ability to defend them at need.

All in a concise, VERY nice package.

I’d owe Kim a shot of whatever he’s drinking, based on this recommendation alone.

Stop reading me for a bit. Go have a look at this article.