No legacy is so rich as honesty - William Shakespeare

In the Mailbag

by Lee

I’ve made a couple of changes to the current reading list over on the right side of the page.  The first is Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why by Bart D. Ehrman.

The popular perception of the Bible as a divinely perfect book receives scant support from Ehrman, who sees in Holy Writ ample evidence of human fallibility and ecclesiastical politics. Though himself schooled in evangelical literalism, Ehrman has come to regard his earlier faith in the inerrant inspiration of the Bible as misguided, given that the original texts have disappeared and that the extant texts available do not agree with one another. Most of the textual discrepancies, Ehrman acknowledges, matter little, but some do profoundly affect religious doctrine. To assess how ignorant or theologically manipulative scribes may have changed the biblical text, modern scholars have developed procedures for comparing diverging texts. And in language accessible to nonspecialists, Ehrman explains these procedures and their results. He further explains why textual criticism has frequently sparked intense controversy, especially among scripture-alone Protestants. In discounting not only the authenticity of existing manuscripts but also the inspiration of the original writers, Ehrman will deeply divide his readers. Although he addresses a popular audience, he undercuts the very religious attitudes that have made the Bible a popular book. Still, this is a useful overview for biblical history collections.

Next we have Don’t Tread on Me: A 400-Year History of America at War, from Indian Fighting to Terrorist Hunting by H.W. Crocker.

In Don’t Tread on Me, Crocker unfolds four hundred years of American military history, revealing how Americans were born Indian fighters whose military prowess carved out first a continental and then a global empire—a Pax Americana that has been a benefit to the world.  From the seventeenth century on, he argues, Americans have shown a jealous regard for their freedom—and have backed it up with an unheralded skill in small-unit combat operations, a tradition that includes Rogers’ Rangers, Merrill’s Marauders, and today’s Special Forces.  He shows that Americans were born to the foam too, with a mastery of naval gunnery and tactics that allowed America’s Navy, even in its infancy, to defeat French and British warships and expand American commerce on the seas.  Most of all, Crocker highlights the courage of the dogface infantry, the fighting leathernecks, and the daring sailors and airmen who have turned the tide of battle again and again.

In Don’t Tread on Me, still forests are suddenly pierced by the Rebel Yell and a surge of grey. Teddy Roosevelt’s spectacles flash in the sunlight as he leads his Rough Riders charging up San Juan Hill. American doughboys rip into close-quarters combat against the Germans. Marines drive the Japanese out of their island fortresses using flamethrowers, grenades, and guts. GIs slug their way into Hitler’s Germany. The long twilight struggle against communism is fought in the snows of Korea and the steaming jungles of Vietnam. And today, U.S. Navy SEALs and U.S. Army Rangers battle Islamist terrorists in the bleak mountains of Afghanistan, just as their forebears fought Barbary pirates two hundred years ago.

Fast-paced and riveting, Don’t Tread on Me is a bold look at the history of America at war.

Be smart like me.  Read this stuff.

Comments

Posted by on 09/25/06 at 04:13 AM from

What about books like, Slander...or Godless ? Do you not like Ann Coulter ?  I like her writing stlye, she can be very humorous.

Posted by Lee on 09/25/06 at 08:15 AM from

What about books like, Slander...or Godless ? Do you not like Ann Coulter ?  I like her writing stlye, she can be very humorous.

I think she’s a pathological liar.  I read her first book, Slander, and enjoyed it.  Then, when I found out the astonishing level of Michael Moore-level bullshit that permeated her books, I swore off her forever.

Posted by on 09/25/06 at 08:19 AM from

Interesting, do you have any examples that I might explorer ?

Posted by Lee on 09/25/06 at 08:27 AM from

Oh, there are a bunch of them.  The ones that really turned me off her were from Spinsanity, see here and here.  And while this is a left-leaning website, these guys were BRUTAL on Michael Moore for exactly the same reasons.

It’s not so much her rhetoric that bothers me, it’s the way she twists and distorts facts to support it, which is exactly what Moore does.  If you can’t back up your argument with simple facts, then there’s probably not a lot to your argument in the first place.

Posted by on 09/25/06 at 08:56 AM from

Interesting read. thank Lee.

I do feel however that in spite of her misquoting and inaccurate information sources, I think for the most part her message is right on.

Too bad she just does not tone it down a little and stop mixing fact with opinions. Its almost like she starts talking about a real justifiable fact and then mixes in her opinion, but yet still makes it seem like fact. 

Interesting.....I still like her but she has dropped some intelligence points with me !

Posted by on 09/25/06 at 09:15 AM from

I think she’s a pathological liar.

No, I think Coulter is an entertainer who has found herself a really good market. Her real political leanings may be right-wing or left-wing; there’s no way to know or reason to care.  She’s a screaming right-wing extremist in the same sense that Borat is a racist homophobe from Kazakhstan.

What’s interesting is that she’s taken seriously by so many and put on TV pretty much all the time. Contrast that with Michael Moore, who I haven’t seen on TV since the 2004 conventions.  (You’d probably know better than I how often he’s on the talk shows.) Coulter’s on at least one Sabbath Gasbag show every week, it seems.

In essence, she’s taken Limbaugh’s schtick and exaggerated it to extremes.  It’s a smart move; she’s making money like crazy.

Posted by dakrat on 09/25/06 at 09:57 AM from

I think Bob hit the nail on the head.  I find her funny sometimes, but you just can’t take anything she says seriously.  She’s the Eminem of punditry.  It has been a very good business model for her.

Posted by on 09/25/06 at 10:47 AM from

I need to read her column just to feel clean after reading Lee’s blog.

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